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CONTACT WITH 
THE OTHER WORLD 



CONTACT WITH 
THE OTHER WORLD 

THE LATEST EVIDENCE AS TO 
COMMUNICATION WITH THE DEAD 



JAMES H. HYSLOP, Ph.D., LL.D 

Formerly Professor of Logic and Ethics in 
Columbia University 




NEW YORK 
THE CENTURY CO. 

1919 



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Copyright, 1919, by 
The Centuky Co. 



Published, June, 1919 



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PREFACE 

The present volume endeavors to treat every aspect of the prob- 
lem regarding a future life and especially emphasizes a large mass 
of facts that ought to have cumulative weight in deciding the 
issue. The facts consist of both spontaneous and experimental 
experiences, the latter designed not only to add to the force of the 
evidence, but to suggest more problems than the mere fact of 
survival. It has not been possible to exhaust any one subject in 
in the field. That would require several volumes. But there 
are topics on which the public desires and needs information that 
I have been unable to consider in previous works and I have en- 
deavored to sketch them as briefly as space would permit. The 
work as a whole, however, makes an effort to help readers who 
want a scientific view of the subject into a critical way of dealing 
with problems which are far larger than the case of mere sur- 
vival. The attitude is more conservative than many of the books 
that have a popular hearing. This is rendered necessary by the 
exceedingly complex nature of the problems before psychic re- 
search. If I succeed in leading intelligent people to take 
scientific interest in the phenomena while they preserve proper 
cautions in accepting conclusions I shall have accomplished all 
that can be expected in a work of this kind, and tho I regard the 
evidence of survival after death conclusive for most people who 
have taken the pains to examine the evidence critically, I have 
endeavored in this work to canvass the subject as tho it had still 
to be proved. The mass of facts sustaining survival is much 
larger and much of it better than that which I have adduced. But 
it is too complicated to explain, and hence I have contented my- 
self with illustrations that can easily be made intelligible. 

March 12th, ipip, 

> James H. Hyslop, 



CONTENTS 



PART I 
HISTORICAL 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Introduction 3 

II Psychic Phenomena in Antiquity 12 

III Modern Spiritualism 23 

IV The Societies for Psychical Research .... 32 

PART II 

PRELIMINARY PROBLEMS 

V The Problem of a Future Life 43 

VI The Problems of Evidence 54 

VII Human Personality 67 

VIII Telepathy 72 

IX Instances of Telepathy and Similar Phenomena 82 

X The Process of Communicating 104 

PART III 

EVIDENCE OF SURVIVAL 

XI Experiences of Well-Known Persons .... 125 

XII Spontaneous Incidents ......... 140 

XIII Experimental Incidents 165 

XIV Robert Swain Gifford 203 

XV Professor James 231 

XVI Mark Twain 249 

XVII Dr. Isaac K. Funk 282 

XVIII Carroll D. Wright 310 

XIX Explanations and Objections 326 

PART IV 

MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS 

XX The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism . . . 335 

XXI Mode of Life After Death 352 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXII Revelations of the Other World 366 

XXIII Reincarnation 377 

XXIV Obsession 385 

XXV Mediumship '. . . 401 

XXVI The Subconscious .411 

XXVII Spiritualism, Religion and Science 420 

XXVIII Psychology, Religion and Medicine 428 

XXIX Psychic Research and the War . , . . . . 443 

XXX Psychics and Politics . . 454 

XXXI Summary and Reflections . 477 

Index . . . . . . 489 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING 
PAGE 

. 96 



Experiments in Telepathy 

Thompson-Giffokd Case 208 



PART I 
HISTORICAL 



CONTACT WITH 
THE OTHER WORLD 



CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTION 

SOME years ago a well-known college president thought to 
put an end to psychic research with the public by calling it 
a return to fetishism. He has lived long enough to learn 
that calling names does not refute facts, and we no longer need 
to apologize for the subject. When the work of investigation was 
first organized, no man's reputation was safe unless he joined in 
with the persiflage of the Philistine or the skepticism of the scien- 
tific world generally. It is easy to understand the accusation that 
psychic research is connected with fetishism, for its fundamental 
interest is in a doctrine that had its origin in what is known as 
animism, which is the spiritualism of savages, among whom it even 
took the form of regarding inorganic objects as animate. But 
the attempt to throttle investigation by invoking the contempt 
heaped on primitive minds was hasty and ill advised. Those who 
think it dignified to study folk-lore certainly cannot consider it 
undignified to pursue inquiries into the real causes of animism. 
But culture always has its antagonisms, and none is stronger than 
that which exists in the intellectual classes against ideas supposed 
to be wholly barbaric. That feeling I myself at one time shared, 
but I did not purpose to ignore facts in the opinions that I might 
hold. Prejudice had to be overcome in the face of what was 
indisputable, or so wide-spread as to demand explanation. Primi- 
tive minds may have been wrong in their theories, but they seem 
to have had facts which require consideration, even though we 

3 



4 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

go no further than fraud or hysteria to account for them; and 
to find these facts is to discover their kinship with those of modern 
times. 

But true psychic research took its origin not from any sympa- 
thy with the ideas of savages nor from any consciousness that the 
two stages of culture are connected. It was a very concrete set of 
incidents that exacted of fair-minded men the examination of the 
facts. Even the types of phenomena did not present themselves 
clearly at the outset. The most prominent were those claiming 
to embody some form of communication with the dead; but types 
of unusual phenomena were soon found that could lay no claim 
to this character, and as they seemed less clearly to contravene the 
accepted laws of nature, they offered a ground for compromise be- 
tween orthodox science and the claims of the supernatural. Among 
such phenomena were telepathy or mind-reading, dousing, hypnosis, 
suggestion, muscle-reading, and perhaps a few others. They 
opened a field for discussion that made the consideration of spiritual- 
ism unnecessary, at least for the time, since they were possibly sus- 
ceptible of (natural) explanation. 

It was a mistake of scientific skepticism to invoke any pre- 
conceived ideas about the explanation of things in order to eliminate 
the consideration of psychic phenomena. The question of fact, 
not of explanation, is the first concern of science. In selecting his 
course, however, the skeptic exposed himself to all the reactions 
which follow the proof of what he doubts or denies; and we are 
to-day reaping the harvest of his imprudence. The public is run- 
ning oflf into every imaginable philosophy and religion, because of 
the trust of believer and skeptic alike in religious and philosophic 
traditions. Sympathy would have given the skeptic the leadership 
in a course in which he has been outrun; he now appears as the 
hindrance to knowledge instead of its supporter. A man should 
never be required to choose between doubt and belief. He should 
be able to intermingle both in due proportions. The spirit of open- 
mindedness and impartiality is to the intellectual world what 
brotherhood is to the ethical world. Woe betide the man who 
does not see this elementary truth, for he is sure to fall into one 
dogmatism or the other. 



INTRODUCTION 5 

The facts that led to the conception of psychic research were a 
set of phenomena which, at least superficially, appeared to be in- 
explicable by the ordinary theories of science. They were taboo 
to normal psychology and psychologists, for no scientific man was 
prepared to reinstate the traditional idea of the supernatural. The 
opposition between the natural and the supernatural was so fixed 
that it was necessary to avoid misunderstanding of the latter term 
in order to pacify the orthodox psychologist. Hence the terms 
" psychic research " and " psychic phenomena '* were chosen to 
denominate a border-land set of phenomena that might possibly be 
resolved into recognized types of events which, though unusual, 
would not necessitate a revision of orthodox beliefs. Abnormal 
psychology had come to accept many extraordinary things, but 
only as exhibitions of acute sensibility or as phenomena of co- 
incidence. It was therefore necessary to make one's peace with 
this attitude and not to rush off prematurely into the regions of the 
miraculous. Psychic research thus became a compromise offered 
by one school of recognized scientists to another in the hope that 
some means might be found to extend tolerance to certain persistent 
facts that would not disappear at the command of conjurer or 
skeptic. The three types of phenomena which gave most offense 
were telepathy, apparitions, and mediumship. Hypnotism had 
won recognition, though only after meeting opposition hardly less 
bitter than that which these more inexplicable facts encountered. 
Muscle-reading and phenomena due to hypersesthesia, or acute sen- 
sibility, lay on the border-land, and offered to the conservative 
mind a natural explanation of the facts to which they were relevant. 
Fraud, coincidence, and suggestion were explanations which fur- 
ther limited or refuted the claims of the supernormal and the 
supernatural. 

For this reason psychic research appropriated for its territory 
all phenomena that might be explained by hypersesthesia, whether 
visual, auditory, or tactual : the nature and limits of guessing and 
chance coincidence; hypnotism; hallucinations, whether subjective 
or veridical; apparitions, whether visual or auditory; mediumistid 
phenomena of all types; the physical phenomena of spiritualism, 
including raps or knockings, table-tippings, and telekinesis, or the 



6 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

movement of physical objects without contact, as well as the so- 
called materializations of common fame. 

Not all of these are of equal value in the study of the problem 
which came easily to the front ; namely, the problem of the existence 
of discarnate spirits. The theory of spirit agency had been ad- 
vanced from time immemorial to cover the whole field ; but it was the 
first task of investigators to discriminate among the phenomena 
and to determine their evidential values. For instance, neither 
telepathic coincidences nor the movement of objects without physi- 
cal contact is in itself evidence of spirit agencies. The field had to 
be mapped out for scientific scrutiny on the basis that many people 
were not discriminating in the explanation of the facts. Only ap- 
paritions and mediumistic phenomena presented any immediately 
apparent evidence for discarnate spirits. The others, however they 
might ultimately be explained, offered no manifest evidence for 
such a hypothesis. But all of them were related at least as un- 
usual phenomena hitherto not explained by ordinary causes, and 
so constituted a group of facts that had been disregarded by ortho- 
dox science. Psychic research simply claimed the field as a new 
country, possibly like the old, but not superficially so. It chal- 
lenged science to apply its methods to the facts and, if possible, 
to reduce them to some sort of natural order. 

In all ages the discovery of any new fact which is either not 
easily or not at all reducible to the normal has excited speculations 
of all kinds. The discovery of galvanic electricity roused all Eu- 
rope to an interest in metaphysics; even Humboldt wrote a book, 
which he afterward regretted, that proclaimed magnetic forces 
to be the basis of cosmic causality. The discovery of radium 
started a revolution in science, though by this time scientists usually 
took discoveries of the kind more cautiously. But any new fact 
alters the perspective of previous knowledge, even when it does 
not revolutionize it. Psychic research was well adapted to rouse 
curiosity on the subject of the supersensible. Even telepathy so 
threatened the stability of materialism that skepticism was irrecon- 
cilably opposed to it, though telepathy did not involve spirit agencies. 
But phenomena that even looked like evidence in favor of spirits 
excited the most rabid skepticism, because they seemed to threaten 



INTRODUCTION 7 

all the conquests of physical science over the supernatural. Their 
recognition seemed to affect the laboriously built fabric of natural 
science as well as to offer hope and consolation to the human 
mind. No one objected to the latter, but the sacred structure of 
physical science must not be touched by hands soiled by the super- 
natural. Consequently, the interest of two opposing parties was 
strongly aroused by the claims in behalf of the supernormal in so 
far as these seemed to open the way into a transcendental world, 
one of support, because of an emotional satisfaction, and the other 
of hostility, because of the disturbance to the materialism of many 
years. 

It was at least impossible to evade the discussion of the doctrine 
of spiritualism in the face of its claims. No matter what our deci- 
sion about telepathy, dousing, telekinesis, and hypnotism, the ap- 
parent meaning of apparitions and mediumistic phenomena re- 
quired further consideration; and whether we believed or disbe- 
lieved in the spiritistic interpretation, we had to face the issue. 
The practical and ethical interests of man concentrated attention 
on this one question and subordinated all others, no matter how 
vigorously was urged the need of cool scientific investigation. 
Spiritualism, therefore, gained prominence, and in the course of 
time challenged any defender of materialistic science to meet it in 
the arena. Skepticism was asked to consider evidence, and to 
offer some practical and desirable alternative to death without 
resurrection or survival. Skepticism was handicapped in such a 
debate. It might insist on natural laws, but it was always menaced 
by the prospect of contending with human needs, which have as 
much influence in determining many beliefs as any of the rigid 
standards of evidence that will have nothing to do with the ethical 
ideals of man. 

The importance of a belief in survival after death depends partly 
on the conditions of the age and partly on the conceptions we have 
of that life. There have been ages in which the idea of immortality 
exercised little influence on the ethical and social life, and there 
have been ages and races in which it was central, determining 
even political institutions. In all cases its value depends on the 
existing state of knowledge and on belief in many other things. If 



8 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

man's moral nature is rightly developed without the belief in 
imimortality, proof will be more an intellectual than an ethical 
concern; but in an age when the affections are highly developed, 
and the intellect has adopted conceptions which virtually nullify 
the influence of the affections, it will be a matter of some im- 
portance to learn whether nature is as careful of personality as it 
is of atoms and matter. We may play the part of Stoics in this 
respect when we have no grounds for belief, but Stoicism itself 
is in most cases a tribute to that which it concedes cannot be ob- 
tained. Few natures can live a purely Stoical life. The most 
ethical impulses are not cast in that mold; and we welcome that 
attitude only when it conforms to what the affections teach, though 
it has given up the beliefs that fostered them. It is true that we 
have to submit if we do not have evidence for either faith or 
knowledge; but the loss will not be compensated by Stoicism, and 
most people will seek for light beyond a horizon which seems to 
hide the future from us. At least there is something to be said 
for the hope that consciousness may be prolonged beyond the 
grave. It is as natural and rational as the impulse toward self- 
preservation. 

The necessity of discussing the existence of spirits at various 
points in thjs work makes it important here at the outset to dispel 
certain illusions about that term. It is probable that in earlier 
writings I did not sufficiently allow for these illusions. But here I 
shall not permit readers to indulge them without taking the re- 
sponsibility for them. Nearly all the difficulties of most people, 
except scientific psychologists, in the matter of believing in spirits 
depend on their conception of the term. In the ancient discussions 
about idolatry, and, in fact, during the whole period of controversy 
with materialism, the believers in spirits assumed and kept in the 
forefront of the argument the fact that spirits represented super- 
sensible realities beyond the field of sensory perception. Even 
when they conceived them as quasi-material, they did not forget 
their inaccessibility to sensation. But when the exigencies of that 
controversy passed away and materialism again took the helm, 
there was a return, largely unconscious, perhaps, to the conception 
of spirits as quasi-material or as representable in the forms of sensa- 



INTRODUCTION 9 

tion. When the church relaxed its hostility to idolatry, it permitted 
the introduction of art into its temples and started the materialism 
which gradually undermined its foundations. In modem times 
esthetic needs and lack of logical thinking resulted in conveying to 
men's minds the idea that spirits could be represented in the forms 
of sense perception. The physical phenomena of spiritualism, es- 
pecially those of materialization, taught men to think of spirits as 
sensory forms of some kind; and with sensation as the standard 
of reality, most people take imagination and newspaper representa- 
tion as indicating what scientific spiritists believe when they say 
they believe in spirits. It is this inexcusable error which has to 
be dispelled. 

In the present work, as in all that I have written on the subject, 
as I have often explained in former discussions, the term spirit 
means nothing more than the stream of consciousness or personality 
with which w^e are familiar in every human being. Whether it is 
accompanied by what is called the " spiritual body " of St. Paul, 
the " astral body " of the theosophists, or the *' ethereal organism " 
of the Greek materialists and many scientific spiritualists of to-day, 
is irrelevant to the question, and is not assumed in this work or 
in any other published work of mine. It may be true that we have 
" spiritual bodies " not perceptible to sense and only occasionally 
accessible to supernormal functions of the mind, when conditions 
are favorable. I am neither upholding nor denying such a view. 
It is simply no part of the scientific problem before us. Even if 
one assumes this spiritual body, one does not necessarily accept the 
spiritistic theory of the mind. What we want to know is whether 
that spiritual body is conscious or not, and conscious with the 
same memory that the person had when living his earthly life. If 
the spiritual body has no memory of the past, if the stream of con- 
sciousness or personalty does not survive with it, there is little in- 
terest in the fact of survival either as a spiritual body or in the form 
of reincarnation. (' The interesting and important thing is the 
survival of personal identity, which consists wholly in the stream of 
consciousness with its memory of the past, and not in any spiritual 
body, no matter how necessary this latter may be to the survival 
of the mental stream itself. 



lo CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

The existence of spirit in this discussion means the existence and 
survival of this stream of consciousness or personahty in independ- 
ence of the physical organism, regardless of how it survives. How 
such a thing is possible is another and separate problem, unaffected 
by the evidence of the fact of survival. Personal identity is not 
accessible to sense perception. It is as transcendental as atoms, 
ether waves, ions, electrons, and other supersensible realities of 
physical science, if there are such. The problem of spiritism is the 
collection of evidence to show that consciousness continues after 
death; its difficulty lies wholly in the strength of the hypothesis 
that consciousness is a function of the brain and requires some 
such structure for its existence. Indeed, the sensory and material- 
istic conception of it is so strong that many people say to me that 
they do not see how consciousness can survive without a brain. 
They are so fixed in the modern theory that consciousness is a 
mere function or phenomenon of the brain that they cannot con- 
ceive of this as an unproved hypothesis. When one makes sense 
perception the criterion o»f truth, it is natural to make this assump- 
tion, especially when all normal experience shows the constant asso- 
ciation of consciousness with a physical organism and reveals no 
traces of it when the body is dissolved. But the absence of evi- 
dence for survival is not evidence of the absence of it; hence only 
normal experience favors materialism. Supernormal experience, 
if proved, suggests a very different interpretation; it brings us in 
contact with the supersensible. In normal life, consciousness in 
all its forms is a supersensible reality, even when we suppose it 
to be wholly dependent on the physical organism. In asking people 
to believe in spirits we ask them only to suspend the dogmatic as- 
surance that materialism has said the last word on the problem; 
simply to be as skeptical about materialism as they are about spirit- 
ism. They may then be in a position to discover the illusions which 
have affected all their thinking on this subject. If they simply 
try to understand what psychic research is aiming at, and so dis- 
regard the question of a spiritual body; the quasi-material concep- 
tion of the soul, as not the primary question, and acknowledge that 
we are only trying to ascertain if personal consciousness survives 



INTRODUCTION ii 

as a fact, and not how it survives, they will find the problem very 
much simplified. 

Consequently, in this work and in all the publications of the So- 
ciety for Psychical Research the term '' spirit " stands for the 
personal stream of consciousness, whatever else it may ultimately 
be proved to imply or require; and all the facts bearing on the 
issue must be conceived as evidence, not necessarily as attesting the 
nature, or any sensible conception, of spirit. 



CHAPTER II 
PSYCHIC PHENOMENA IN ANTIQUITY 

IF it had not been for our present knowledge of psychic phenom- 
ena, no matter what the explanation of them, we should be 
unable to make intelligible most of the stories that have come 
down to us from ancient times. But present knowledge makes it 
easy to understand their meaning. Even savages were conversant 
with psychic phenomena, in the form of superstitions. Savage, no 
less than civilized imaginations, went far beyond the facts in their 
efforts to explain them, went so far that science has ever been dis- 
posed to cite these imaginings as proof of feeble intellectuality, as 
superstitions which it has been the achievement of civilization to 
overthrow. Tylor's '' Primitive Culture," Herbert Spencer's works, 
Frazer's " Belief in Immortality among Savages " and many similar 
works, as well as the legends of folk-lore, bear testimony to the 
existence of psychic phenomena in the earliest times, even though 
we make due allowance for magic, fraud, hysteria, and morbid con- 
ditions. Dreams and sorcery seem to have been the chief forms 
of manifestation. In dreams the savage mind seemed to find 
evidence of survival, and in sorcery and magical rites it seemed 
to find means to invoke the aid of the dead or to propitiate their 
anger. The study of savage beliefs will some day be deemed as 
important as it is interesting in this respect, but only as throwing 
light upon the history of psychic phenomena. In all ages these 
phenomena participate in the character and preconceptions of the 
people affected by them. Their form is influenced and shaped by 
the preconceptions of normal experience. Moreover, savages as- 
sumed a reality in their experiences which the modern psychic re- 
searcher does not assume. They interpreted occurrences accord- 
ing to superficial appearance ; but we have learned from the distinc- 
tion between subjective and veridical hallucinations that these may 
have a genuine import even when they are only quasi-material. 

12 



PSYCHIC PHENOMENA IN ANTIQUITY 13 

This is particularly true of apparitions and voices. The signifi- 
cant fact regarding savages is that identical ideas of the soul arose 
among tribes that had never had any communication with one 
another, tribes as far separated as the Australians, the New-Zea- 
landers, the South Sea Islanders, the Africans, and the North 
American Indians. Tradition cannot account for these similarities, 
but similar experiences can explain them. 

But we cannot dwell here upon savage customs. They are only 
the antecedents that help to explain the deviations* and survivals of 
certain ideas and customs in more civilized times. Perhaps we 
should not know the significance of these primitive customs, were 
it not for the survival of savages on the boundaries of civilization. 
But when they are once known, much becomes intelligible that could 
not easily, if at all, be otherwise unraveled. The more civilized 
periods arose out of the earlier conditions and were characterized 
by a revolt against them, which embodied itself now in a philosophy 
and now in some form of purified religion. 

A more interesting period is that which followed savage times, 
in which the superstitions of earlier people were partly outgrown. 
The ancestor-worship of China and Japan is the oldest survival of 
animism, which is the belief of primitive races. As culture ad- 
vanced, this worship took various forms. The more intelligent 
classes dropped the ideas of the more ignorant and substituted re- 
spect for the memory of ancestors in place of fear of their in- 
fluence as spirits. But there were other and rival beliefs. When 
Buddhism and Confucianism arose, the former denying the exist- 
ence of spirits and the latter admitting their existence, but dis- 
regarding their importance, ancestor-worship underwent modifica- 
tions. Brahminism, the philosophic upholder of immortality, sub- 
stituted a supersensible conception of the soul for the quasi-mater- 
ial idea of earlier times. But Buddhism directly attacked Brahmin- 
ism, and, by denying all survival, including personal immortality as 
the Brahmins understood it, tended to uproot ancestor-worship. 
Confucius admitted that spirits exist ; but his system was primarily 
concerned with secular ethics and laid no stress on the doctrine of 
survival. In political and social problems, all of these religions 
compromised with animism and made concessions to it. To-day 



14 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

we have every conceivable form of belief among the Oriental races. 
Ancestor- worship, in most cases simply the spiritualism of the 
East, survives as the exponent of immortality. Its influence is evi- 
dent in the widely extended belief of the Chinese in demoniac posses- 
sion. 

Judaism in its early period, when it attacked idolatry, was in 
essence an assault on fetishism or animism. The pure theism of 
Moses marked an advance in a more philosophic conception of 
the world, and represented the same intellectual movement as that 
of Xenophanes and the Eleatics in Greece. In fact, it was more 
or less synchronous with the rise of Buddhism and other religions in 
the Orient, and at one period was contemporary with the intellectual 
development of Greek philosophy. In calling the worship which 
preceded theism " idolatry," modern minds, if ignorant of the mean- 
ing of animism, would mistake the nature of the movement. 
Animism had various forms, from the most superstitious type to 
an advanced stage of spiritualism, as represented in mediumship. 
Its most objectionable form was fetishism. A more familiar form 
is represented in incidents like that of the Witch of Endor, and, 
among the common people, in the general recognition of 
mediumistic phenomena, which it was to the interest of the 
state religion tO' persecute. The intellectuals of the age opposed 
the lower types of belief in the interest of a purer religion or ethics 
and even identified themselves with what we should now regard as 
the scientific spirit. Judaistic theism recognized the idea of God 
as absolute unchangeableness, while fetishism made Him or other 
discarnate realities altogether capricious and unmoral. In making 
the Divine unchangeable, the intellectuals identified God with nat- 
ural law. It was only the later emergence of Christianity, with 
its appeal to the supernatural, which reinstated the animistic con- 
ception of the Divine. Had religion held to the notion of natural 
law, it might have escaped the consequences of its identification 
of the Divine with the irregular and capricious. The elder Judaism 
was virtually identical with the movement of Xenophanes in Greece, 
in so far as the conception of God was concerned, and represented 
philosophy versus superstition. 

The origin of Christianity was associated with psychic phenomena 



PSYCHIC PHENOMENA IN ANTIQUITY 15 

to a marked degree. The story of the transfiguration, and the 
appearance of Moses and Elias on the mount is a conspicuous in- 
stance. It does not make any difference whether it be true or 
not; it was told, and modern psychic research has made it entirely 
credible, even though we give it no other import than that of an 
hallucination, objective or veridical. Furthermore, there is the 
story of Christ and the woman at the well; and that of Christ 
walking on the water, which is not regarded as a physical miracle 
in the New Testament, for it is not his physical body, but his spirit 
— the revised version says apparition — that is represented as walk- 
ing on the water. We have the story of the disciples on the way to 
Emmaus after Christ's crucifixion ; the story of St. Paul's vision on 
the way to Damascus, when he thought he saw his Lord after the 
crucifixion; the speaking with tongues on the day of Pentecost; 
the miracles of healing, which have been repeated a thousand times 
since that period, in more or less striking manner; and lastly the 
story of the resurrection, which investigation shows was con- 
nected with the phenomena of apparitions. The very term is the 
same as that used for such phenomena by Homer, Herodotus, 
^schylus, and Sophocles. Many theologians have held this view 
independently of and even previous to psychic research. In addi- 
tion, we have the " spiritual body " doctrine of St. Paul and the 
remarkable classification of the types of mediumship, or " spiritual 
gifts," described by him in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth 
chapters of First Corinthians; the fifteenth chapter of the same 
book developed his doctrine of the ** spiritual body " and the 
resurrection. 

What followed among the early Christian fathers, especially 
among the Greek philosophers who accepted Christianity, proves this 
genesis of Christianity in psychic phenomena. I shall have occa- 
sion to refer to them a little later. But the controversy about the 
resurrection between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, before the 
story was told of Christ, indubitably proves that Christianity simply 
followed the common beliefs of the age and had no antagonist ex- 
cept materialism and orthodox institutions interested in preserving 
the political fabric at the time. Those familiar with the whole 
field of psychic phenomena can easily recognize them in the various 



i6 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

incidents of real or alleged spiritual healing narrated in the New 
Testament. Suggestion, trance, mediumship, and telepathy are 
apparent in the record; were it as perfect as later records are, we 
might discover still more evidence of this affiliation. 

Greek philosophy, like all similar movements in the Orient and 
Palestine, was a protest against the polytheism of the preceding 
period, with a remote relation to fetishism and animism. When 
it arose, it seems to have been unaware of fetishism, the worship of 
" stocks and stones," against which Judaism was directed. 
Polytheism had succeeded Fetishism, which was either forgotten or 
ignored without being seriously considered. But the interest in 
monotheism on the one hand, and in scientific tendencies on the 
other, evoked an attack by the materialists on polytheism and in- 
cidentally on all theistic conceptions. In its inception the move- 
ment coincided with the same tendency at that time in other coun- 
tries. 

But the earlier philosophers did not wholly escape the influence 
of animism. Even the Ionian materialists, or physicists, as they 
are usually called, admitted the existence of souls; and the ma- 
terialists like Empedocles and Democritus frankly admitted the 
existence of souls and their survival, one of them even avowing 
reincarnation. But they did not admit these agencies into causal 
relations with the cosmos or man. They initiated that conception 
of the divine which terminated in the more distinctly avowed and 
logical doctrine of the Epicureans, namely, that the gods, though 
they exist, have no causal relation to the physical world. They 
substituted what may be called material causes for efficient causes 
in the explanation of the cosmos. The elements or atoms were 
held to be the constituent material of things, explaining what things 
are, their qualitative, though not their temporal, origin. 

Later thinkers had to compromise with the idea of creative or effi- 
cient causes, which Socrates, Anaxagoras, Plato, and Aristotle to 
some e:k:tent acknowledged. In so far as they did so, they either 
bordered on the recognition of the spiritual, which the physicists 
and materialists excluded from their explanation of the universe; 
or they openly avowed this spiritual intervention. But even the 
earlier thinkers, supposed by most historians of philosophy to have 



PSYCHIC PHENOMENA IN ANTIQUITY 17 

had nothing to do with modern spirituaHstic ideas, admitted them 
in many details, from which students of psychic research can easily 
reconstruct the whole doctrine. For these thinkers excluded 
spiritistic ideas only from the interpretation of nature; spiritual 
realities were held to exist side by side with material phenom- 
ena. In this acknowledgment we find the dualism of Greek 
thought, from which it never escaped until materialism totally 
denied the existence of spirit of any kind. 

Plato was familiar with the popular view and embodied it in his 
celebrated narrative about the destiny of the soul after death; but 
he distinctly asserted that this story was mythical. His doctrine of 
immortality was conceived after the analogy of our conservation 
of energy. He believed in reincarnation, or transmigration of 
souls, and often expressed himself as if the conception were the 
same as that of some modern believers; but he did not assume the 
survival of personal identity. This theory is what connects his 
view with our notion of the conservation of energy, by which the 
form of matter in one condition is not retained in another. He was 
careful to repudiate the popular ideas and to maintain transmigra- 
tion as a philosophical doctrine, though it is probable that, just 
after the death of Socrates, his emotional interest influenced him to 
hold to personal survival. But when he came to test it by his 
philosophic doctrine, he adopted a view which is not consistent with 
personal survival. 

Aristotle also believed in immortality, but he carefully distin- 
guished between the immortality of the " rational " soul and that of 
the " animal " soul. He denied the latter. But he was generally 
so reticent about what he meant that his real doctrine is a matter 
of conjecture. He believed in premonitory dreams and tried to 
explain them away in some natural manner, but confessed that he 
was not sure of success. He was probably familiar with the popu- 
lar spiritualism; and, if so, we may surmise that his "animal'' 
soul was the " spiritual body " assumed by him and others to be 
the basis of vital phenomena, but not of consciousness ; in this case 
the '' rational " soul would be simply the stream of consciousness, 
self -consciousness, which survived in some way that he could not 
intelligibly represent. But he was not interested in the doctrine 



i8 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

and probably referred to it only because philosophy could not 
escape its consideration. Since he had to leave Athens to escape 
persecution, he probably veiled his own agnostic views in the 
distinction mentioned; it may have meant no more than Plato's 
transmigration, though possibly evoking less hostility. 

The Stoics believed in some form of immortality, perhaps adopt- 
ing the view of Aristotle, though they did not always regard it as 
an essential belief either for explaining the world or for establish- 
ing a basis for ethics. The Epicureans admitted the existence of 
the soul, or " ethereal organism," " spiritual body " of St. Paul, 
but they denied that it survived death. They were perfectly 
familiar with the popular spiritualism, but rejected all its beliefs 
except the doctrine of an " ethereal organism," which they rather 
inconsistently held to be a fine form of matter, since they affirmed 
at the same time the indestructibility of matter and the perishability 
of the soul. Perhaps they preserved consistency by conceiving the 
" ethereal organism " as complex and assuming that all complex 
organisms at some time dissolved or perished. 

This brief outline of Greek ideas shows throughout a thread of 
animism or primitive spiritualism. The attempt to explain change 
inevitably introduced the idea of efficient causes ; and with these the 
popular mind, relying on oracles, who were the Greek mediums, 
fraudulent or otherwise, and on apparitions {anastasis, the Greek 
term for resurrection), felt secure in defending survival after 
death. But the philosophic mind, which always opposes the in- 
terpretations of naive realism, could protect itself only by an agnos- 
tic or hostile attitude toward the doctrines that had their origin 
in the earlier form of animism. The spiritualistic interpretation 
of man's destiny survived side by side with these philosophic views. 
The two doctrines were combined in Neo-Platonism, whose chief 
followers tried to reconcile philosophic with popular ideas. 
Whether they succeeded or not it is not necessary to inquire. What 
we know of Plotinus and his followers shows that they took seri- 
ously the phenomena which had given rise to the popular doc- 
trine, and tried to explain them in accordance with the abstruse 
idealistic metaphysics of the time and of later Christianity. 

There was a period between Epicureanism and Christianity in 



PSYCHIC PHENOMENA IN ANTIQUITY 19 

which the traces of philosophic and scientific thought were almost 
lost. No men of special historic note have survived in the records 
of their contemporaries. Antiquarians might pick up stray evi- 
dence of both philosophy and psychic phenomena in that interval, 
but it was Christianity that precipitated a return to the considera- 
tion of the facts. Philosophy had gone to seed. The intellectuals 
had rejected facts as superstition and had wallowed in speculation 
and imagination until respectable orthodoxy could do nothing else. 
The common people again, as usual, raised the issue by an appeal 
to facts, and occasioned a revival of interest in the popular ideas 
which Greek philosophy had repudiated just as Old Testament 
Judaism had rejected animism. This revival manifested itself in 
Neo-Platonism. Its founder was Ammonius Saccas and its chief 
representatives Plotinus, Porphyry, and Jamblichus. These men 
lived in the second and into the third century after Christ. The 
historians of philosophy say little or nothing about their mysticism, 
and give an account only of their conclusions, which have no mean- 
ing apart from the facts that determined them. The Neo-Platon- 
ists were well versed in all the practices of spiritualism; indeed 
one modem author of great learning maintains that they knew 
more about it and were in this respect more rational than the 
moderns, such as Judge Edmunds, Andrew Jackson Davis and their 
followers. Plotinus went into trances, about which little or no 
information is given us by the orthodox historians of philosophy. 
Jamblichus gives minute accounts of the forms of psychic phenom- 
ena, especially phantasms and materializations, which he, more 
rational than modern spiritualists, identifies with apparitions. 
Apollonius of Tyana was more or less an adept in the subject, 
though, despite acknowledged good traits of character, he passed 
among skeptics as an impostor. No doubt some of these men did 
not report their facts in such a way as to escape the skepticism 
roused by methods of deception, which existed then as they do to- 
day. But the ensemble of incidents reported by men of intel- 
ligence created a presumption that where there was so much smoke 
there must have been some fire. This is evident in the essay of 
Plutarch on " The Cessation of the Oracles." Many of the stories 
bear the marks of imperfect observation; for this, and for fraud, 



20 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

Plutarch allows. From his account, any one familiar with proved 
modern psychic phenomena can recognize, after proper discounts, 
the existence of the same phenomena then as to-day. 

The author of ''The Apocatastasis," a classical scholar in one 
of the American colleges, who went over the whole subject thor- 
oughly, calls attention to the trial of Apuleius for " witchcraft " 
before a Roman judge on account of his experiments with an 
epileptic boy. Isodorus, the philosopher, describes a woman who 
poured water into a glass vessel and therein beheld phantasms 
representing future events; this is an instance of crystal gazing. 

The author just quoted, after canvassing the whole of antiquity 
upon the subject, summarizes the phenomena in the following man- 
ner: 

" The methods of intercourse between the two worlds and of 
prying into futurity were by means of oracles, omens, dreams, the 
lot, astrology, magical divination (the ancient mesmerism), aided 
by magical statues, tripods, rings, spheres, water, mirrors; and 
necromancy proper, or the evocation of and direct conversation 
with the spirits of the dead." 

He then catalogues all the types of phenomena in relation to mod- 
ern records. It is a remarkable list. 

*' Physical 

Lights, both fixed and moved. 

Halo, encircling the medium. 

Spectra, luminous, or otherwise visible. 

Self-visible spirits. 

Sounds, cries, voices in the air, trumpets, speaking spectres (ma- 
terializations), musical intonations, ' musical instruments 
played. 

'*" Physiological 
Trance. 

Magnetic sleep. 
Magnetic insensibility. 

'' Psychological or Physico-psychological. 
Spirit speaking, spirit writing. 



PSYCHIC PHENOMENA IN ANTIQUITY 21 

Speaking unknown languages (* speaking with tongues/ echola- 
lia). 

Answering mental questions. 

Clairvoyance, in relation to both time and space. 

Magnetization, by the eye, the hand, music, or water. 

Spirits answering questions through mediums or without 
mediums." 

The author might have added to this list the reading of the 
contents of sealed letters, of which he reports a case or two. 

It matters not whether the phenomena were genuine or not. 
Some of them represent types of occurrences which have good 
credentials in modern times, though others remain to be proved. 
Certain physical phenomena still have to prove their claims, but 
many of the mental type, though they belong to abnormal psychol- 
ogy, have their genuineness established. 

The same author quotes from Plutarch a remarkable statement 
which shows not only critical acumen on the part of that intelligent 
Roman, but also a distinct anticipation of the theory of interfusion 
of the minds of the medium and the spirit in the delivery of mes- 
sages. It occurs in the account of his observations in connection 
with the Pythian oracle : ' 

" If the verses of the Pythia are inferior to those of Homer, we need 
not suppose that Apollo is the author of them. He merely gives the im- 
pulse whereby each prophetess is moved according to her peculiar dis- 
position. For if the responses were to be given by writing instead of 
speaking, I do not think the letters (grammata) supposed to be written 
by the god would be found fault with because they lacked the caligraphy 
of royal epistles ; — for the voice, the intonation, the diction, and the 
metre, are not the god's but the woman's. He only causes visions and 
supplies light to the soul in relation to the future.'* 

There is evidence in modern investigations that a foreign stim- 
ulus is always present to give rise to subconscious recollections and 
interpretations and that the phenomena are not always, if they 
are ever, pure invention by the psychic. There is the intermingling 
of two minds. Transmission of thought is not merely the process 
of delivering messages verbatim; it is never free from subcon- 
scious modification by the medium through which it comes. In the 



22 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

passage from Plutarch we have an observation which is confirmed 
by modern experiment. 

Plutarch lived in the first century of the Christian era; his work 
on this subject therefore coincided with, and may have been influ- 
enced by, the new. interest created by Christianity in psychic phe- 
nomena. But from this time on, the subject was more or less con- 
fined, so far as favorable notice of the facts is concerned, to the 
Christian Fathers. The rising conflict between paganism and the 
new creed tended to discredit the oracles, one side opposing them 
because they did not favor Christianity, and the other unable to 
defend them from the philosophic point of view. Christianity had 
control of the situation for the long period of its domination; the; 
works of the Fathers are full of stories of the continuance of 
miracles, though on the whole they rapidly declined in number after 
the crucifixion, or at least after the end of the first century. On 
the whole neither this period nor that of the Greek and Roman 
oracles can be quoted except as evidence that better accredited phe- 
nomena in modem times had their antecedents in antiquity; and if 
we do not reject them as wholly idle tales, it will be because we have 
proved the existence of the super-normal in the present age. 



CHAPTER III 
MODERN SPIRITUALISM 

IT is a curious fact that most investigators connected with the 
English society for Psychical Research have associated modern 
spiritualism with the Fox sisters almost exclusively, though 
conceding, with Mr. Andrew Lang, that it has its roots far back in 
the earliest history of man. There is little excuse for this nar- 
rowness of view, though there is no doubt that the Fox sisters 
gave the subject a popular vogue which it did not have until their 
experiences excited attention. 

Modern spiritualism really originated in the work of Swedenborg. 
The phenomena of Swedenborg were not physical, as were many 
of those alleged by the Fox sisters. They were of the mental type, 
consisting of visions with his own interpretation of them — illus- 
trations of the type now called pictographic. While such phe- 
nomena have been casually reported in literature ever since the 
time of the Christian fathers, these reports were given little cre- 
dence until similar reports by Swedenborg made them seem more 
credible. He was a man of good education and creditable probity, 
who never exploited his powers as did the charlatans of the Middle 
Ages. He was born in 1688 and died in 1772. These dates 
placed him before the time of the great revolution in philosophic 
thought brought about by Immanuel Kant. He was educated at 
the University of Upsala and became a civil engineer. He made 
himself famous in almost every department of science, and even 
anticipated Kant and Laplace, according to Grieve, in the nebular 
hypothesis. He also suggested a flying-machine and produced a 
model which he knew, and said, would not work, but which he 
thought would suggest the principles on which such a machine might 
be constructed. His inventions in other fields were numerous and 
successful. But we hear less of them than of his philosophical 

2Z 



24 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

works in the sphere of rehgion and real or alleged supernormal 
psychology. When he was in London he claimed to have obtained 
by supernormal means information of a fire in Copenhagen. There 
was reported of him also the clairvoyant discovery of a lost paper, 
which strongly impressed Kant. But his ** revelations " appealed 
to more minds than did these trivial supernormal phenomena. 
These revelations purported to come from discarnate spirits, to 
reveal the nature of the next life, and to give instruction on all 
religious matters of importance to human kind. Swedenborg's 
works abound with evidence that much of his material was influ- 
enced by his own mind and its stores of reading, though his diary 
records the experiences in a form more free from interpretation. 
The impressiveness of his work affected Immanuel Kant in his 
early life sufficiently to induce him to write his " Dreams of a 
Ghost Seer" {'^ Traume eines Geistessehers"), in which he 
weighed the speculative arguments for and against spirit communi- 
cation, leaving the question unsettled. Some writers see in this 
work an ironical treatment of the problem ; but there are too many 
statements seriously recognizing the possible validity of spiritistic 
claims to justify such a judgment except to men who are wholly 
unfamiliar with the evidence for the subnormal. Kant, however, 
ceased to have interest in the subject, though it was later revived, 
as the works of Hegel and Schopenhauer show. Both of these 
philosophers became convinced of the existence of the phenomena; 
but their attitude toward this subject is disregarded in most dis- 
cussions of their philosophic systems. 

Scientific materialism arose as a consequence of the renaissance 
of science which began with Copernicus. Men had a new interest 
in nature and the physical universe. They had long been fed on 
tradition and speculative metaphysics, and the reactions, as shown, 
both in skepticism and the revival of materialistic tendencies, is 
apparent in the agnosticism of Kant and in all subsequent philoso- 
phy. Swedenborg made an attempt to counteract this materialistic 
trend of things, though he, perhaps, did not feel the impulse of the 
materialistic movement so strongly as did many others who had 
followed in the wake of Cartesian thought. Whether they felt 
this trend or not, however, believers in immortality were supplied 



MODERN SPIRITUALISM 25 

by the method of Swedenborg with scientific evidence. This 
method was an appeal to facts and to communication with the dead 
for evidence of another hfe, and it even went so far as to map out 
that Hfe. Whether Swedenborg adequately met the demands of 
scientific method is another matter. There is no doubt that too 
much was made to depend on his mere probity and his authority as a 
scientific man and that his system soon developed into the same kind 
of dogmatism as that of Christian theology. The experiment of 
continued communication with the dead was not kept up, except 
as -it was practised by people who had abandoned the orthodoxies 
of both philosophy and religion. Despite its defects, however, the 
method of Swedenborg represents the right conception of the 
problem. Materialism and skepticism acknowledged nothing but 
normal experience for regulating the beliefs of mankind; and that 
experience does not attest survival. It may stimulate hope and 
faith, but these sources of belief give no such assurance as the 
scientific mind requires. With the new criterion of truth set up by 
scientific investigation, came an increased demand for better evi- 
dence for survival than natural science on the one hand and religion 
on the other were capable of supplying. Swedenborg anticipated 
the method by which this evidence can be obtained; but his fol- 
lowers, like Christian theologians, settled down on the authority 
of their master and regarded spiritual revelation as closed. Sci- 
entific experiment and investigation had to wait another century for 
recognition, except as the problem was kept alive by sporadic 
instances of mediumship and other phenomena outside the limits 
of science, philosophy, theology and even Swedenborgianism. 
These instances found favor mostly among the common people, but 
they were ridiculed by the respectable adherents of other beliefs. 
Events may have justified this attitude of mind on the part of the 
educated; at any rate these occurrences occasioned no such interest 
as did the movement initiated by the Fox sisters. 

The interest in spiritualism after the time of Swedenborg was 
kept alive by the performances of Mesmer and by the Investigators 
who followed him. Among German authorities of note who inves- 
tigated the subject, Jung Stilling, a man of university education 
and standing, is the most important. Contemporary with him were 



26 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

Keiser, Wienholt, Fischer, Kluge, and Baron von Reichenbach ; 
the last, a scientific man of some attainments, experimented and 
wrote much upon the subject. We cannot go into any notice of 
his work, and refer to it only to indicate that the phenomena would 
not have received so much attention, had they been merely sporadic. 
This attention was centered on mesmerism or animal magnetism, 
now called hypnotism, an artificial method of inducing trance, 
which often resulted in supernormal manifestations and medium- 
istic phenomena. Among the most noted of the somnambules of 
the period was Frederika Hauffe, called, from her birthplace, the 
Seer of Prevorst. The poet and physician Kerner published a life 
of her after her death, which was prior to 1829. Kerner had also 
another case of which he published some account; but there is no 
space to discuss these cases. They illustrate the usual phenomena, 
however explained, and were no doubt accompanied by hysteria, the 
usual concomitant of such manifestations, but they are of interest 
as demonstrating that the modern movement began outside of 
America, and long before 1848. 

Swedenborg aroused some interest in France, but he had no sec- 
tarian following there of any special note. It was Mesmer who 
created the interest manifested there. His performances in Paris 
soon after he moved there in 1878 excited great interest, and re- 
sulted, as did somnambulism in Germany, in the revival of super- 
normal phenomena transcending hypnosis. Deleuze was the chief 
representative of the movement in this period, but he suspended 
his judgment on spiritistic phenomena. He was interested in the 
naturalistic interpretation of somnambulism and clairvoyance, 
though conceding that there were facts which required further in- 
vestigation. He had some controversy on the subject with one 
Billot, who defended the spiritistic theory. Cahagnet aroused 
some interest, but, as he had no scientific training, his work was 
without authority; he seemed to have experimented much in vari- 
ous directions and accepted the spiritistic theory. The materialistic 
tendencies of France, however, after the expulsion of the Hugue- 
nots by Louis XIV, created an atmosphere of skepticism about 
everything supernatural or savoring of spirits, so that the first incli- 
nation of all inquirers was toward what they were pleased to call 



MODERN SPIRITUALISM 27 

" naturalistic'* explanations. Hence spiritualism made little or no 
progress until long after 1848. 

In England mesmerism aroused some interest. Elliotson and 
Esdaille successfully practised it and also met with supernormal 
experiences. Another student of mesmerism was Braid, but he 
encountered few, if any, supernormal phenomena. On the whole, 
spirituaHsm, at least in so far as public and literary notice are con- 
cerned, made little headway in England until after the episode of 
the Fox sisters. 

Though the phenomena are very old, as we have seen in the 
foregoing account, it was the rappings of the Fox sisters that cre- 
ated a world-wide interest in the facts. The manifestations were 
accompanied by no mesmeric nor hypnotic phenomena. America 
knew and cared little about mesmerism in the scientific sense. It 
was chiefly occupied in the organization of a new social and political 
system, and in the accumulation of wealth. Spiritual interests were 
confined largely to the orthodox in religion. Consequently, sci- 
entific and skeptical people were not fired with interest in the im- 
mortality of the soul. The movement broke out in a simple agri- 
cultural community, wholly unacquainted with the philosophic and 
scientific problems of Europe. It boldly proclaimed itself as spir- 
itualism — a word whose history is honorable, but whose meaning 
has degenerated into a term of contempt — with a creed based on 
certain physical phenomena said to have originated in the presence 
of the Fox children. 

These phenomena began in Hydesville, New York. The his- 
tory of the occurrences is well told in the work of Mrs. Underbill, 
a sister of the two chief mediums concerned. Her account is a good 
one and there is no reason to question it, though we may not fully 
share her enthusiastic interest in the events. She, with many 
others, thought that they betokened the rise of a new religion, un- 
aware that they only repeated phenomena associated with the early 
history of Christianity. The enthusiasm was natural ; for these 
people felt that they had found proof, to take the place of the uncer- 
tainties of faith. I am convinced that the abuse which has been 
heaped upon the movement has obscured the value of some of the 
phenomena — value not necessarily as supernormal occurrences, but 



28 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

as cases of interest to abnormal psychology. It was the confession 
of Margaret Fox that deprived the movement of both its scientific 
and its religious interest. She confessed to making the raps with 
her toe joints. It mattered not that there were other and mental 
phenomena which were well-attested, and that there was testimony 
that raps had occurred in localities where action of the toe joints 
could not be effective. The confession of fraud sufficed to rob the 
case forever of scientific interest: 

Other forces also contributed to nullify the importance of the 
phenomena. A religion dependent on raps and on proved defects 
in moral character was not likely long to survive. It would have 
been wiser to leave the significance of the facts to science and to 
allow religion to obtain its credentials from ethical and spiritual 
ideals of another type. But the consolation obtained- from alleged 
proof where only faith had previously existed* was too much for 
uneducated people to withstand, and their emotional reactiori dis- 
colored the facts. The confession of fraud left no room for apol- 
ogies; no intelligent person could afterwards feel or express an 
interest in the phenomena. The spiritualists who endeavored to 
defend their proteges only weakened their cause and brought it into 
deserved contempt. There can be no doubt in the mind of the 
present writer that the phenomena of the Fox sisters never received 
their deserved investigation ; but the spiritualists did not take a 
course that would invite the interest of intelligent people. They 
succeeded only in giving the word spiritualism a meaning that has 
made it almost impossible to use it in a favorable sense among 
respectable people. 

It is worth remarking, however, that all important movements 
of the kind have originated among common people. The intellectu- 
als have never originated an important ethical or spiritual reform. 
They have supported art and refinement, but have never founded 
a religion which rules over the destinies of civilization. Such a 
religion has always originated among the common people, who 
have no prejudices against nature nor in favor of aesthetics as the 
first condition of truth or virtue. This is the excuse for the interest 
shown in the Fox phenomena. They were intelligible to common 
understandings, though they did not conform to the more refined 



MODERN SPIRITUALISM 29 

conceptions of educated people. It is true that even the actuahty 
of the raps and physical phenomena reported in the case have no 
bearing on the explanation that aroused enthusiasm and gave con- 
solation. But physical phenomena, like the alleged miracles of 
Christ, have always attracted the untutored mind; one can therefore 
understand the interest excited by the movement even when one 
does not share it. The spiritualists have never made a sustained 
effort to attract the attention of scientific men to their phenomena 
or their religion. Their performances are little better than vaude- 
ville and their religion, as an organized affair, little better than a 
cloak to protect them against the invasions of the police. Recent 
developments have somewhat modified this situation, but many 
followers are interested in neither ethics nor religion, but only in 
a show. Christ deplored the fact that his followers cared more 
for his miracles than for his ethical teachings; and mankind have 
ever since justified this rebuke. If spiritualism had organized 
ethics and practical life and laid less stress on its phenomena, it 
might long ago have won the world's respect. All religions are 
judged by their external appearances; if they are vulgar in their 
appearances and have no redeeming features in ethical and spir- 
itual life, they will not attract the intellectuals. 

But the spiritualist movement was restored to a measure of re- 
spectability by Judge Edmunds and Andrew Jackson Davis. Judge 
Edmunds was a lawyer of sufficient ability to become one of the 
judges in the supreme court of New York State. His first psychic 
experiences came through his own daughter; they were private and 
never exploited as were those of the Fox sisters. His two volumes 
have great interest for psychology, whatever explanation we give to 
his data; but he made the mistake of laying little or no stress on 
supernormal phenomena, giving the prominence to alleged com- 
munications from Francis Bacon and Emmanuel Swedenborg. He 
offered no proof that these philosophic and other revelations came 
from the source ascribed to them. The same criticism holds true 
of the work of Andrew Jackson Davis. Both his defenders and 
h'is opponents misjudged the facts: his defenders exaggerated 
Davis's ignorance and his critics exaggerated his knowledge. His 
work has at least great psychological interest, but his investigation 



30 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

of facts never pursued a method that would lead to convincing 
interpretations. 

The author of the " Apocatastasis," mentioned above/ took the 
right view of the facts. He thought it probable that the phenomena 
were spiritistic, but he insisted that this conclusion was not a basis 
for accepting the teachings which the communications contained. 
He drew the important distinction between the origin and the valid- 
ity of the contents of the communications. It is one thing to prove 
that a statement comes from a spirit, but it is another and very 
different thing to prove that it is true and valid. This distinction 
is constantly forgotten. A man may exhibit supernormal faculties, 
but these do not give him insight into reality. Moreover, he may 
get messages from spirits; but the ability of a spirit to send a mes- 
sage does not guarantee veracity of the sender, any more than the 
conversation of your neighbor over a telephone assures you of the 
correctness of his statements. The value of a statement is not 
determined by its source. It was the mistake of the admirers of 
Judge Edmunds and Andrew Jackson Davis — a mistake shared by 
these men themselves — to assume that the evidence that spirits were 
back of the phenomena furnished also a reason for belief in the con- 
tents of the messages. Ignorance, impersonation, confusion of 
messages, as well as the coloring given by the medium, offer objec- 
tions to the passive acceptance of messages as true. These facts 
should have been realized by all who were connected with the cases. 
It was perhaps pardonable that few or none saw the difficulties 
involved, because Christian thought, in its whole history, had been 
based on vindication of the source of teaching as a sufficient cri- 
terion of its validity. It required later reflection on the conse- 
quences of evolution to discover that the value of facts is established 
by function, not origin. 

It would be interesting to follow in detail the history of modern 
spiritualism through all its vicissitudes, but this would require more 
than one volume. I have devoted attention to it merely to empha- 
size the fact that its origin is not recent, but that its phenomena are 
as old as the human race. Only the scientific investigation of it 
is modern. This investigation would not have been undertaken, 
1 " Proceedings " English S. P. R., Vol. I., p. io6. 



MODERN SPIRITUALISM 31 

had not Christianity, like paganism, begun to show signs of decay, 
and had not the triumphs of physical science weakened the faith of 
mankind and developed an exclusive interest in physical life. 
Whatever faults the spiritual customs of Christianity had, they 
always kept alive the serious view of nature and human life, and 
saved civilization from debauchery in the period following the 
break up of paganism. That was achievement enough; but had it 
adjusted itself to the advances of science, it might have held the 
reins of power still longer. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE SOCIETIES FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

PSYCHIC phenomena finally excited such a world-wide inter- 
est that they compelled the attention of scientific men. The 
phenomena might possibly have remained unnoticed much 
longer, had it not been for their occurrence in respectable families, 
sometimes to men and women of intelligence and training. But 
interest even among intelligent people continued for some time 
without being strong enough to organize any effort to apply sci- 
entific methods to an investigation of the facts. At last, however, 
a few men concluded that it was the scandal of science that the 
allegations of centuries had not been taken up and investigated. 
The persistence of the phenomena, and of the claims for the super- 
normal, was a perpetual challenge to science; at last this challenge 
was accepted. 

John Addington Symonds states in his letters, with a half -sneer 
at the folly of it, that Professor Sidgwick of Cambridge Univer- 
sity was investigating mediums as early as 1867 with the hope of 
finding evidence of survival after death. This date was fifteen 
years before the organization of the Society for Psychical Re- 
search. 

The experiences of the Reverend W. Stainton Moses were among 
the chief incentives to the formation of the society. These ex- 
periences were confirmed by other sporadic, remarkable incidents 
among intelligent people, such as Lord Brougham, Cotter Mor- 
ison, Andrew Lang, and Sir William Crookes. The Reverend 
Stainton Moses had been educated at Oxford University and 
was for a long time a clergyman of the Church of England; but 
during his intercourse w^ith some skeptical members of his own 
congregation he was persuaded by them to investigate spiritualism. 
He found nothing at first ; but he finally developed automatic writ- 
ing himself, and became convinced by it that the claims of the 

Z2 



THE SOCIETIES FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 33 

spiritualist were correct. His unquestioned integrity left intelli- 
gent people no choice but to investigate the matter. He was per- 
sonally known to Professor Sidgwick, Mr. Myers, Edmund Gur- 
ney, and others of the same standing. With his case and others 
challenging science, the men just named organized, in 1882, the 
English Society for Psychical Research, and obtained the coopera- 
tion of other prominent men. Prof, (now Sir) William F. Barrett, 
however, was probably the chief instigator in the matter. He had 
independently and individually been investigating the phenomena, 
especially those of mind-reading, or telepathy, for years, and had 
brought the matter to the attention of the British Association for 
the Advancement of Science, which would have nothing to do 
with it. He continued to urge the subject among scientific men, 
however, until he saw the fruit of his interest and work in the 
organization of the Society. He was himself one of the vice- 
presidents in the organization. Professor Henry Sidgwick being 
the president. Professor Balfour Stewart was also one of the vice- 
presidents. With them were associated Arthur James Balfour, 
M. P., Richard Hutton, and the Honorable Roden Noel. The 
council of the Society was composed of Frederick W. H. Myers, 
Edmund Gurney, Frank Podmore, Charles C. Massey, and others 
not so well-known in America. These names guaranteed a scien- 
tific treatment of the subject. 

Before this time the Philosophic Society had investigated the 
phenomena and published a favorable report on them ; but its report 
had not been received by the scientific world with the respect it 
deserved. The present Society, however, had more than a tem- 
porary interest in the subject and was determined to pursue the 
investigation until some light was thrown upon the phenomena. 
Sir William F. Barrett read the first paper on Thought Reading at 
the first meeting of the Society, and Professor Sidgwick read his 
presidential address. A draft of the purposes of the Society was 
published as a circular; the objects of study included phenomena 
purporting to represent the influence of " one mind on another 
apart from any generally recognized mode of perception" (after- 
ward called telepathy), hypnotism, clairvoyance, the experiments 
of Reichenbach, apparitions, haunted houses, the physical phe- 



34 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

nomena of spiritualism, and the collection of existing materials 
bearing on the history of these subjects. This was an extensive 
program, but it has been carried on now for more than thirty-five 
years. The publications of the Society have consisted of a Journal 
issued monthly and a volume of '' Proceedings " issued annually, 
often in parts distributed through the year. 

In 1884, two years after the organization of the English Society, 
an American Society was formed, with Mr. N. D. C. Hodges as 
secretary. Professor Simon Newcomb was its first president. Its 
vice-presidents were Professor, now President, G. Stanley Hall of 
Clark University, Professor George S. Fullerton of the University 
of Pennsylvania, Professor Edward C. Pickering of the Harvard 
College Observatory, Dr. Henry P. Bowditch of the Harvard Med- 
ical School, and Dr. Charles S. Minot of the Harvard Medical 
School. 

At the sixth meeting of the Society, on January 11, 1887, Dr. 
Richard Hodgson of London, England, was elected secretary. The 
Society had on its membership list a large number of scientific men. 
It issued annual reports which, in the course of five years, made 
a volume. But by this time membership fell off and interest 
declined, perhaps because the public did not find the expected prog- 
ress made. The American Society was therefore abandoned and 
reorganized as an American branch of the English Society. Dr. 
Richard Hodgson was continued as its Secretary and remained 
in that office until his death in 1905. 

A year before the death of Dr. Hodgson, the present author, 
having resigned his position in Columbia University to recover his 
health, resolved to organize an independent American Society, 
with the object of finally merging the American branch with it 
when the financial support of the work justified it. It was deter- 
mined not to compete in any way with either the English Society 
or its American branch. The plan was to make Dr. Hodgson its 
secretary, as he had expressed his willingness to merge the branch 
with the new American Society. To effect this merger, effort was 
concentrated on raising the sum of $25,000 as a fund to guarantee 
preliminary organization. Just as this money was secured. Dr. 
Hodgson died. The present author refused to organize the new 



THE SOCIETIES FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 35 

society on his own responsibility alone, conditioning it on either 
the cooperation of the English body or the dissolution of the 
American branch. The latter alternative was adopted by the Eng- 
lish Society and the new American Society was organized with Dr. 
James H. Hyslop as its Secretary. This was in May, 1906. Its 
publications did not begin until January, 1907. 

There are organizations of some sort in both France and Italy 
under the auspices of scientific men, but their constitutions are 
not known to the present author. The Psychological Institute in 
Paris was founded to include psychical research in its field of 
inquiry. 

These societies are intended to give scientific character and re- 
spectability to the investigation of unusual phenomena bearing on 
the problems of mind and its survival of bodily death. The preju- 
dice against spiritualism was so strong at the outset that its objects 
had either to be disguised or ignored. Telepathy, dousing, hyp- 
notism and various phenomena which present no superficial evi- 
dence of the intervention of discarnate spirits received the first at- 
tention. After the supernormal in some form had been proved, 
the credentials of spiritualism came under notice. In the course of 
the work, most of the leading members who have conducted per- 
sonal investigations have become convinced that man survives 
bodily death; but it has been regarded as not always good policy 
to avow the conviction with any missionary zeal. Hence convic- 
tion on the point appears to the public to be less strong than it 
actually is. There are enough questions still unanswered to sug- 
gest caution on the subject, especially on aspects of it as yet wholly 
uninvestigated. But the existence of supernormal phenomena has 
been so well established by the work of the several groups of inves- 
tigators that men are fast coming to acknowledge that the subject 
can no longer be evaded or ridiculed as it was at the outset. Psychic 
research may now be regarded as having proved its right to a place 
among the investigations of science. 

As its first work, the Society undertook experiments on telepathy 
or thought transference with some success. But some doubt was 
ultimately cast on two series of the experiments, those with the 
McCreery sisters and those between a Mr. Blackburn and a Mr. 



36 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

Smith. The McCreery sisters confessed that they had used signals 
in certain experiments, a circumstance which gave the skeptic op- 
portunity to decry the whole work. But the experimenters soon 
showed that they had attached no value to any experiments save 
those in which signalling was impossible. The girls insisted also 
that they had not used a code in those instances which had seemed 
most impressive. In the other case, as Mr. Blackburn was proved to 
be a liar or at least wholly untrustworthy as- a witness, even in his 
own confession of fraud, his testimony even in the latter case could 
not be accepted at its face value. There were additional' and bet- 
ter results on which to base the claims of telepathy; something of 
the kind seems certainly to be a tenable hypothesis. It is true that 
since its origin, the meaning of the term has been enlarged to cover 
many and various processes; consequently all the claims made re- 
garding it have been viewed with suspicion. 

Telepathy, in its original meaning, was limited to the transfer- 
ence of present states of consciousness; but, for the sake of com- 
batting the evidence for the existence of discarnate spirits, the 
definition was extended to include subconscious acquisition of mem- 
ories from others, by a selective process on the part of the person 
who received the thoughts thus transmitted. No scientific evi- 
dence for this theory has been advanced, though there are coinci- 
dences which might well suggest it. 

This, however, is not the place for discussing in detail the mean- 
ing of telepathy. Strictly speaking, the term denotes the trans- 
mission of thought from one mind to another independently of the 
recognized channels of sense, or, as the present writer prefers to 
define it, in order not to suggest any known process, telepathy is a 
coincidence between the thoughts of two minds, which cannot be 
explained by chance or normal sense-perception. The facts which 
it includes are not evidence of the existence of discarnate spirits. 
This definition leaves undetermined the nature of the process and 
the directness of transmission. 

Not all of these qualifications were made in the first stages of 
the investigation; but they were usually implied. It was the object 
of the Society to ascertain whether there were any supernormal 
phenomena that would not excite the antagonism which spiritual- 



/ 



THE SOCIETIES FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 37 

ists always evoked by their claims. It was apparent that the proof 
of anything like telepathy would involve the possibility of com- 
munications with the dead, given the actual survival of personal 
consciousness. This method of approach made the hypothesis ap- 
pear less objectionable to the scientific skeptic. 

In the course Si several years of investigation, two types of 
phenomena, with perhaps a third, made something like telepathy 
seem plausible. These were spontaneous coincidences between two 
persons' thoughts and experimental coincidences, in which the con- 
ditions of the result could be regulated and the phenomena re- 
peated more or less at will. The third type consisted of appari- 
tions; since these naturally suggested the agency of spirits, believers 
in telepathy were interested in attempting to prove the adequacy of 
that process as an explanation. 

I shall give a few illustrations of the phenomena. I adduce 
them, not as a scientific proof of thought transference, but only as 
illustrations of the kind of cases which were for many years col- 
lected, and which, whatever the explanation, very frequently occur. 

In '* Phantasms of the Living," the authors record the follow- 
ing incident. It is partly experimental and partly spontaneous. 
A gentleman willed that a lady who lived at some distance from him 
should leave the part of that house in which she was at the time, 
should go to her bedroom, and should remove a portrait from her 
dressing-table. When the gentleman next saw her, she told him 
that, at the time in question, she had felt strongly impelled to go 
up to her room and remove something from her dressing-table. 
She did remove an article, though it was not the portrait. In this 
case, the man's act was experimental; the lady's act, since she did 
not know that the experiment was being made, was spontaneous. 

The following, in the form of a dream by the percipient, is spon-- 
taneous on both sides : 

" I dreamt I was looking out of a window, when I saw father 
driving a Spids sledge, followed in another by my brother. They 
had to pass a cross-roads, on which another traveller was driving 
very fast, also in a sledge with one horse. Father seemed to drive 
on without observing the other fellow, who would without ^ail 
have driven over father if he had not made his horse rear, so that 



38 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

I saw my father drive under the hoofs of the horse. Every mo- 
ment I expected the horse to fall down and crush him. I called 
out * Father ! Father ! ' and woke in great fright. The next morn- 
ing my father and brother returned. I said to him, * I am so glad 
to see you arrive quite safely, as I had such a dreadful dream about 
you last night.' My brother said, ' You could not have been in 
greater fright about him than I was,' and then related to me what 
had happened, which tallied exactly with my dream. My brother 
in his fright, when he saw the feet of the horse over father's head, 
called out, ' Oh, father, father! ' " 

Thousands of such coincidences have occurred, many of them 
under conditions and with confirmation that seem to prove the 
reality of telepathy. It is difficult to believe that they are due to 
chance. 

But I am not concerned to prove anything by these incidents, 
which are only illustrations of what, if performed under proper 
conditions, would be regarded as proof of the supernormal transfer 
of mental states or pictures. The Society carried on experiments 
for a long time and in large numbers, besides recording as evidence 
spontaneous incidents as good as or better than that quoted. It felt 
justified in maintaining, despite the objections of a critical scien- 
tific world, that the existence of telepathy has been proved. 

Of course, part of the difficulty in carrying conviction arose from 
the lack of an exact definition of telepathy or thought transference. 
If the Society had held to a negative conception of the tenn, assum- 
ing neither its value as an explanation nor the directness of transfer 
between the two minds, it might have aroused less criticism. But it 
and the public used the term as if it explained certain occurrences, 
and as if it necessarily implied direct transmission. We have no 
evidence to justify these conclusions; we proved only the existence 
of certain coincidences not due to chance nor to normal sense-per- 
ception, and not evidence of the discarnate. The controversy with 
the spiritualists, however, gave the term in relation to spiritistic 
theories a meaning that it should never have had. 

Two other types of occurrence, however, made it necessary to 
ask whether spiritual beings exist : namely, apparitions and medium- 
istic phenomena. The Society then began to investigate phantasms 



THE SOCIETIES FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 39 

or apparitions; the two volumes published on that subject, together 
with the volume entitled " A Census of Hallucinations," ^ an- 
nounced the unanimous conclusion of the committee that these ap- 
paritions were not due to chance. The committee regarded this 
conclusion as proved, regardless of the explanation, which many as- 
sumed to be telepathy. As the census was limited to phantasms of 
the living or of persons at the moment of death, the hypothesis had 
its plausibility. Apparitions of the dead were not considered in this 
report. 

Mediumistic phenomena strengthened the case of the spiritualists. 
Soon after the announcement of the conclusions regarding telep- 
athy and apparitions, the Society discovered Mrs. Piper, through 
Professor William James, who had reported on her phenomena as 
early as in 1885. In 1887, Dr. Richard Hodgson became ac- 
quainted with the case; in the course of eighteen years of work 
with Mrs. Piper he, together with some other members of the So- 
ciety, became convinced of the spiritistic theory. After Mrs. 
Piper, Mrs. Verrall, Mrs. Holland and others exhibited the same 
type of phenomena. The American Society has investigated Mrs. 
Smead, Mrs. Quentin, Mrs. Chenoweth and a few others. There 
can be no doubt, whatever the explanation, that supernormal infor- 
mation has been- obtained through them. 

In the meantime other fields of inquiry were opened. The orig- 
inal Society unsuccessfully tried to repeat the experiments of Reich- 
enbach. Sir William Barrett spent much time in investigating 
dousing, and issued two reports, in which he announced the con- 
clusion that the finding of water by the divining-rod is possible. 
Hypnotic phenomena were to some extent investigated, particu- 
larly with a view to inducing conditions for proving telepathy; 
some remarkable experiments were performed by Edmund Gurney. 
In the course of thirty years of work, the Society collected an im- 
mense amount of data, which leaves the scientist no excuse for 
ignoring the immemorial claims of a supernormal element in human 
experience. 

The American Society has been handicapped in its work by the 
need of funds and a laboratory for scientific work, and of coop- 
erators in the field, It has succeeded in raising an endowment of 



40 



CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 



$160,000 for its work, but the income from this, together with 
membership fees, guarantees only its pubHcations and the running 
expenses of its office. It has made no experiments in telepathy, 
and has had only limited opportunity to investigate spontaneous 
phenomena. But it has managed to do some work in the medium- 
istic field, and maintains its " Journal " and " Proceedings " with 
such material as it can secure from personal reports and the experi- 
ments with a few psychics. It has not yet exercised any such in- 
fluence over the public as has the English Society. Academic and 
scientific support, probably on account of the avowed spiritistic 
sympathies of its secretary, has been weak. 

The work, however, is well established, and probably in the 
future will not be neglected. Enough has been accomplished to 
make scientific neglect of the problem inexcusable, although much 
work remains to be done, to overcome prejudices of our material- 
istic age. When the fact is commonly recognized that psychic re- 
search is concerned not with a metaphysical theory, but with the 
collection of facts which may establish a great truth, the bias of 
the scientific world will be overcome. The Societies have done 
much to further this progress ; and it is probable that the immediate 
future will see the barriers of prejudice broken down, with the 
serious investigation of questions more far reaching than those in 
any field of physical science. 



PART II 
PRELIMINARY PROBLEMS 



CHAPTER V 
THE PROBLEM OF A FUTURE LIFE 

MOST unsophisticated people have no difficuUy in believi 
ing in a life after death, especially if they have been 
taught this belief in infancy. In that period of simple 
trust in their superiors, children will accept what they are taught, 
and in most instances, the beliefs adopted at that time remain stable. 
In many people the beliefs formed in childhood cannot be shaken ; in 
others, if the old beliefs are destroyed, the change proves disastrous. 
The effect of the change, however, depends on the importance which 
the belief holds in the economy of the personal life. If it be the one 
belief that has organized all a man's hopes and ideals, any rude shock 
given it will demolish the whole fabric of character. The im- 
mortality of the soul is so central to the hopes of many people, espe- 
cially of the uneducated, that they will cling to it against all odds 
and resist all argument to give it up. Taken in with the mother's 
milk, so to speak, and organizing about it all the fundamental inter- 
ests of life, it will either resist argument of any kind or yield to it 
only with the surrender of human ideals. 

There are many, of course, who can shift the pivot of interest 
to ideals of the present life. But they have some ability to think, 
and have sufficiently strong will to shake off the sense of dependence 
w^hich characterizes the child. Many people remain children all 
their lives; it is they who suffer most from the shock of change of 
belief. But those who grow^ to independence of judgment may 
readily stand the shock of skepticism and do so whenever they 
can substitute another interest for the one that was lost. This 
class, however, represents the minority of the human race, and 
usually comprises its leaders. Some of them boldly adopt skep- 
ticism and its consequences. Others attempt to justify their prim- 
itive beliefs in the name of philosophy. The unsophisticated classes 
will follow one or another of these leaders according to their tem- 

43 



44 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

peraments. If they cling to the interests which have centered about 
immortahty, they accept that beHef on faith, or authority. But 
if they are rebelHous or conscious of the real difficulties in believing 
it, they doubt it or give it up. 

The one consideration which determines the attitude of mind 
towards this and all other beliefs is the criterion of reality. To the 
unsophisticated mind this criterion is sense-perception; even when 
it believes in what transcends sensation, it tries to conceive this 
assumed reality as still like that of sense in all but constant accessi- 
bility to perception. This conception, of course, goes to show 
that the unsophisticated easily abandon their most natural stan- 
dard of reality. But they cannot give a consistent account of 
their procedure; and are at the mercy of those who rigidly insist 
on sense-perception as the test of reality. It is characteristic of 
the scientific mind to accept this same criterion of truth; in this 
respect it is like the unsophisticated mind. But they differ in the 
greater tenacity with which the scientific mind consciously clings 
to the standard. It is true that scientific men also readily abandon 
this standard for one which acknowledges realities transcending 
sense-perception — for example, atoms, ions, electrons, ether; but 
these men differ from the unsophisticated in adopting the maxim 
that all provable truth rests upon sense-perception. To them prov- 
able truth is what they can make another person believe by repro- 
ducing in him sensations which compel belief. The unsophisticated 
mind has no such rigid standard of evidence. It accepts as suh- 
jectively true much that does not appeal to sense. If the mind can 
see the truth for itself it will not require proof in sensory pro- 
cesses; but if it cannot see the truth without external proof, 
such objective evidence requires sense-perception. Herein lies the 
whole difference between the unsophisticated and the scientific mind. 
For uncertainty, according to the scientific mind, attaches to every 
belief or statement which cannot vouch for itself in terms of sense- 
perception. It may be true, but it is not provable, unless represented 
in sense-pictures or experiences. Science may accept facts not di- 
rectly represented in sensation, but they must be logically involved 
in what sensation attests. The final test for science is some sensa- 
tion constant or easily produced, under proper conditions, which 



THE PROBLEM OF A FUTURE LIFE 45 

will enforce the conclusion. The unsophisticated mind, however, 
does not consciously abandon sense-perception as its standard of 
truth. It simply has not analyzed the processes which determine 
conviction. 

There are many degrees between these two extremes. The half 
scientific and half unsophisticated mind will combine the standards 
of belief in all sorts of ways; and it is in this intermediate class 
that all the perplexities arise. The scientific mind that does not 
care for consequences, moral or otherwise, can accept without 
compunction or remorse the limits which sense-perception pre- 
scribes to belief. But ethical minds, less pugnacious and more 
sensitive, halt before accepting the guidance of skepticism, and 
struggle with might and main to save their ideals and beliefs from 
the corrosion of doubt. 

I have stated the case with some care, allowing for the criticism 
always made against wide generalizations. It would be easier 
and perhaps would satisfy certain skeptical minds, if I asserted 
that the test of all truth is sense-perception as that is naively under- 
stood. Those who wish to perplex the naive mind may make this 
contention feeling secure that unsophisticated persons will not con- 
test it. But while it is true that the test of reality is always sense- 
perception, it is true with a qualification. This qualification is, 
that sensation is not so simple a matter as the skeptic would like 
us to believe. Besides simple or pure sensations there are other 
mental states, which we usually represent by the term judgment. 
This term was rendered necessary by the existence of illusions. 
While an illusion is in fact an error of judgment or inference, it 
is so closely connected with sense-perception that our normal habit 
is to represent sense-perception as needing correction by judgment. 
The meaning of sensation is therefore limited to the simple oc- 
currence of reaction upon external stimulus through one of the 
sensory end-organs; so defined it is not a complete standard of 
truth at all, but the elemental datum which gives rise to knowledge. 
Processes of judgment on constant and variable sensory experiences 
enable us to ascertain the meaning of things much more accurately 
than do the separate sensations. The naive, uncritical mind does 
not go beyond the most elementary use of judgment. It discovers 



46 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

few illusions and ignores those which it does discover. The critical 
scientific mind endeavors to find unity in a variable experience, as 
better evidence of truth than that found in unorganized ex- 
perience. 
% In studying the question of a future life, the unsophisticated 

mind follows authority or its wishes, or, if it relies on experience 
at all, accepts what the more critical mind resolves into illusions 
and hallucinations. The primitive savage accepted dreams and 
apparitions as satisfactory proof of another life, thus relying on 
real or apparent sensory data. But when the critical or philo- 
sophical mind approached the problem, difiiculties arose, which 
obliged the belief in a future life to seek refuge in some transcen- 
dental philosophy or be abandoned. In all countries where philoso- 
phic habits of mind arose, one of the first dogmas questioned was 
that of the immortality of the soul; with the growth of materialism 
the doubt thus raised was strengthened. Previous teaching had 
maintained that matter and spirit are two independent realities, 
and that spirit survives death. But philosophy distrusted the 
idea of two independent substances or realities, especially if one 
of them seemed to interfere with the fixed order of nature. There 
is no doubt that primitive believers in spirits thought them capricious 
and as mischievous as any power over nature might be. Those 
who observed certain regularities in the world, certain fixed laws, 
either had to deny any interference with them or to assign to spirit 
a place in the world which would make it seem ineffectual and un- 
related to the causal series of events. With sense-perception as the 
criterion of truth, the critical mind had a tendency to accept matter 
as the fundamental reality of the world; if it conceded the exist- 
ence of spirit at all, it did so, not in response fo the evidence, but in 
order to avoid trouble. In accordance with its standard of belief, 
it usually denied the evidence or dogmatically asserted the non-ex- 
istence of spirit; this is the position of both materialism and agnos- 
ticism. Agnosticism means that we have no basis for either a pos- 
itive or a negative conclusion; it admits that we cannot know that 
spirit does not exist. This, in fact, is the only tenable position for 
any intelligent skeptic. It follows from his maintenance of sense- 
perception as the test of reality. The absence of sense-perception 



THE PROBLEM OF A FUTURE LIFE 47 

of spirit does not prove that spirit does not exist, if we define spirit 
as transcending sense-perception. Such absence merely shows that 
the behef lacks satisfactory evidence. But materialism denies the 
reality of spirit, on what it supposes to be satisfactory evidence that 
mental phenomena are but products of the brain. It is this theory, 
firmly rooted in many minds, that disturbs the belief in a future 
life. 

Materialism has a long history and stands for two rather distinct 
conceptions. In the present age, it is the result of several sets of 
facts, which we can only briefly state. Materialism ha^wo forms : 
sensational materialism and philosophical materialism. The first 
of these is opposed to idealism and the second to spirituulism. If 
spiritualism and idealism were identical there would be but one 
form of materialism; but they are far from identical, as every 
philosopher well knows. Most materialistic philosophers evade 
the real issue by contrasting materialism with idealism, and allow 
the layman to think that they are quite orthodox on the doctrine 
of immortality, though they are careful to leave their teaching on 
this point indefinite. This sensational materialism is founded on 
the naive view of the world as presented to sense-perception. The 
idealist has become convinced that knowledge and reality are 
not adequately expressed in sense-experience; and as the ma- 
terial world is supposed to be represented by sense-percep- 
tion (though the scientific view of the material world is not so 
expressed) the idealist calls that view of the world materialism 
which is more or less interchangeable with naive realism : namely, 
the view that sensation rightly represents the nature world of 
matter and hence of reality. The idealist denies materialism thus 
conceived, by asserting that some sort of transcendental reality 
exists behind sensation. 

But a man may be at the same time an idealist and a philosophical 
materialist. Philosophical materialism is based upon as super- 
sensible a conception of matter as that maintained by any spir- 
itualism or theism. Like idealism, it does not rely upon sense- 
perception as the test of truth. It regards the real nature of things 
as hidden from the senses. It bases the whole sensible world upon 
supersensible realities as its elements or cause. This philosophic 



48 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

materialism began at the time of Empedocles and Democritus and 
was developed by the Epicureans. The atoms which constitute the 
basis of the whole sensory world were regarded as supersensible: 
it was their combination in the various forms of things that af- 
fects the senses and explains the world as we know it in sense- 
perception. These earlier materialists, however, admitted the ex- 
istence of souls, as fine material or " ethereal " organism. But 
some of them denied the survival of this ethereal organism, which 
corresponded to the astral body of the theosophists and the " spir- 
itual body " of St. Paul. Christianity tried to prove by the story 
of the resurrection that this soul did not perish, though its theory 
of the bodily resurrection made the belief only more difficult and 
required a most elaborate philosophy to sustain it. The real con- 
ception of the resurrection at the time, at least among most intel- 
ligent people, as indicated in the New Testament, was that of ap- 
paritions, the visible appearance of the " spiritual body " after 
death. Christianity thus directly denied the materialist's view of 
death as the end of all. It did not deny the existence of atoms; it 
simply affirmed the survival and reappearance of the *' spiritual 
body," which, for all practical purposes, was synonymous with the 
soul. The materialist was challenged either to abandon or to 
modify his theory. 

In the course of time the materialist chose the latter course. He 
gave up the hypothesis of an ethereal organism as the source of 
consciousness, and connected consciousness directly with the body 
or brain as a collection of atoms. Consciousness thus became a 
function of a complex organism rather than a function of a spirit 
or soul; and, as all functions of the physical body perish, the same 
fate was held to await consciousness. This view seems to be sat- 
isfactorily upheld by normal experience. Mental states are ac- 
companied by physical structure; when this structure is dissolved 
by death there are no traces, at least in normal experience, of the 
independent existence of consciousness. It was quite natural to 
infer that it does not survive. It is true that the conclusion is not 
absolutely assured, but if there is no evidence whatever on the con- 
trary side, we have at least to confess total ignorance; and the 
certainty that all other functions of the organism perish will estab- 



THE PROBLEM OF A FUTURE LIFE 49 

lish a strong probability that consciousness is no exception to the 
rule. Its survival can be proved only by showing that it is not 
a function similar to those that manifestly perish, or by bringing 
forward actual instances of such survival. 

This outline of the situation created by modern materialism 
shows just how we have to attack the problem. We have to ad- 
duce evidence that consciousness is not a function of the physical 
body. We can no longer rely on the philosophical method, which 
was based on the theory that consciousness is a unique phenomenon, 
which cannot be reduced to mechanical equivalents, nor conceived 
as a by-product of the physical organism. It is true enough that 
consciousness has not beeen reduced to mechanical laws nor iden- 
tified with any chain of physical events. But this failure is no proof 
that consciousness is not derived from physical phenomena. The 
burden of proof is thrown on the man who affirms that it is so 
derived, but the question is left open. Common sense could not 
believe that light and sound are vibrations, but science proved that 
they are, even though the senses do not directly reveal the fact. 
If, therefore, light and sound can be reduced to supersensible phys- 
ical phenomena, may not consciousness be similarly explained ? At 
any rate the philosopher could not dogmatize on the subject, and the 
nature of consciousness had to remain an open question; yet the 
philosophic proof for the existence of the soul depended on the as- 
sumption that we know enough of its nature to deny its physical 
character. 

The whole problem was shifted over to science, which is occupied 
primarily with facts and only secondarily with the nature of reality. 
Philosophy tried to explain consciousness and to infer its survival 
from a theory of its nature. Science let its nature alone and tried 
to study its behavior. It is concerned primarily with evidence and 
secondarily with explanation, while philosophy in the past has been 
too much occupied with explanations and too little with evidence. 
Science begs no questions as to the nature of anything. It first 
ascertains the facts and then expresses the nature of a thing in 
accordance with those facts as its effects or manifestations. When 
the philosophic method of proving immortality broke down, there 
was nothing left but to apply to science for the solution. Philoso- 



50 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

phy, in all its development, had depended on science for its prem- 
ises, 'though it was disposed to admit this dependence only very 
grudgingly, if at all. The success of science, how^ever, in over- 
throwing many philosophic beliefs, and especially religious beliefs, 
gave that method the highest authority in the determination of 
truth. As it pronounced in favor of materialism, it aroused the 
most determined opposition of all who were interested in preserv- 
ing such a belief as survival after death, whether they undertook 
to defend it by religion and faith or by philosophy. But there is 
no escape from the verdict of science; on it depends the proof or 
disproof of survival. Theology and philosophy are now discred- 
ited authorities; if science cannot ascertain facts to prove immor- 
tality the belief is negligible. We may still insist on hoping for 
survival, but our hope will not have the credentials that the pres- 
ent age requires for all its beliefs. In ages when wishes and hopes 
are accepted as adequate reasons for belief, faith may survive ; but 
when the demand for assured evidence is made, science must take 
up the task of making a negative or an affirmative decision. 

That task involves the question, whether individual conscious- 
ness can be isolated from its apparently fixed, but really temporary, 
connection with the body. The fact is, that science has never 
proved that we do not survive. It has but established a theory 
on which the doubt or denial seems natural. While it knows that, 
in normal experience, consciousness is associaJted with an organism 
and that, when the organism perishes, Jthere seem to be no traces 
of this consciousness, it knows only that in normal experience it 
simply is without evidence for survival. It does not have proof of 
annihilation. Its theory is but a working hypothesis, one of great 
strength, it is true, and convincing in proportion to the neglect of 
phenomena which appear to suggest the survival of consciousness. 
Yet it has not demonstrated the destruction of consciousness. Nor 
is it easy to do so, while certain phenomena continue to throw doubt 
on the conclusions of materialism. The present strength of ma- 
terialism is due entirely to its neglect of these phenomena. It has 
considered the facts which fit its theory and has disregarded all that 
are inconsistent with it; and now psychic research, employing the 
same scientific method, has become the Nemesis of materialism. 



THE PROBLEM OF A FUTURE LIFE 51 

Psychic research endeavors to isolate an individual consciousness, 
or to ascertain facts which prove that isolation, by the same method 
that a chemist uses when he proves the existence of a new element. 

The facts purporting to attest survival are apparitions and al- 
leged communication with the dead. There are other supernormal 
phenomena of great interest, but they do not directly prove the 
existence of spirit, and perhaps would not even suggest it to crit- 
ical minds. Apparitions and mediumistic phenomena, on the con- 
trary, if their validity can be proved, certainly conform to the 
scientific demand for the isolation of an individual consciousness. 
They at least are the kind of phenomena which we might expect if 
spirits exist and can produce any effect in the physical world. They 
show that it is not necessary to decide the nature of consciousness 
before believing in survival, that we may prove or show to be 
probable the fact of survival, while leaving the nature of conscious- 
ness wholly unexamined. The result may give rise to a philosophy, 
but does not depend on it. 

Before the adoption of the scientific method, men paid the pen- 
alty for being less thorough than the situation required. They 
exposed their belief to the corrosive influence of the doubt cast by 
further knowledge. We have arrived at a stage of culture in which 
the faiths of the past have lost their power. The triumphs of 
science have established the confidence of men in its practical value 
and in its ability to explain the universe. The intelligence of the 
world is on its side; and mankind must follow intelligence always, 
if it is to gain its ends. Evidence, proof, reason, fact instead of 
faith, hope and desire influence belief. Whatever value these lat- 
ter have, rests on the basis of proved truth, not on imagination 
and arbitrary hopes originating in the emotions and the will. 

The problem is, therefore, not to bolster up faith without sci- 
ence, but to establish the truth by science, so that faith will become 
either unnecessary or rational. The authority of the priesthood 
is lost. If it acknowledges the conclusions of science, it can regain 
its power, but only on that condition. The intelligent world no 
longer takes its ipse dixit as final, but asks for evidence, which 
science alone can furnish. Materialism also must no longer select 
for consideration only the phenomena which support its precon- 



52 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

ceived theories, based upon a partial view of nature. It must take 
into account the exceptional phenomena as well as the regular 
routine of experience. If it fails to do' this, it is exposed to the 
same criticism that it has directed against faith. It is only another 
dogmatism to neglect the rare facts of nature, a dogmatism the 
less excusable because science professes to found its beliefs on 
facts and not on preconceptions. Even in physical science, the 
exceptional phenomena of nature have deeper significance than 
ordinary occurrences. The discovery of Roentgen rays was due 
to an accident. The discovery of argon was due to the observa- 
tion of an anomaly in the behavior of nitrogen, the neglect of which 
would have resulted in a false conception of that element. It is, 
therefore, not beyond the function of science to study the unex- 
plained phenomena of mind. They cannot be explained as merely 
abnormal events. Whatever place abnormality may have in them, 
there is a relation between some of them and events not known 
to the subject, which makes some new explanation imperative. 
The facts have to be explained, and they are not explained by the 
usual theories. To deny the facts is not to explain them. The 
question is: do they demonstrate the isolation of consciousness 
from the body ? 

Of course, to laymen, the problem does not seem so technical. 
They follow public opinion in their conception of the issues. In all 
ages, being unable to investigate or philosophize for themselves, 
they have relied on the intelligent members of the community to 
furnish them their science and their philosophy. They have ac- 
cepted all ideas on authority. When the intelligent classes were 
priests and philosophers and believed in immortality, the laymen 
felt assured of the truth of the belief. But when these same classes 
of men doubt or deny it, the laymen either follow them into skep- 
ticism, or allow the belief to atrophy. They may not have the 
courage to deny it altogether, but they feel their inability to defend 
it except by sheer force of will or faith. Niceties of scientific 
method do not enter into their processes of fixing their beliefs. 
They simply seize the easiest way of deciding the question, either 
yielding to authority on one side or the other, or stubbornly stand- 
ing by their emotional preferences. 



THE PROBLEM OF A FUTURE LIFE 53 

But wishes and hopes cannot remove the doubts which critical 
minds thrust at us. We have to overcome emotional bias, or the 
belief which has exercised such a powerful influence on the past 
will decay as all inadequately supported doctrines have done. We 
must invoke the method which has destroyed so much, and insist 
that it shall do constructive instead of destructive work. It must 
take account of all the facts, instead of neglecting some in the 
interest of a theory which selects what it likes and lays more stress 
on the uniformities of nature than does nature herself. We must 
show that consciousness can actually be dissociated from matter, 
instead of inferring our conclusion from insufficient premises. 

The isolation of an individual consciousness involves getting into 
some form of communication with discarnate personality, or dem- 
onstrating facts which indicate the influence of discarnate mind 
upon the animate or the inanimate world. It will not be enough to 
prove that the brain cannot altogether account for consciousness. 
We have tO' prove the survival of personal identity; that is, of a 
personal stream of consciousness with its memories of past earthly 
life. A soul might lose its identity or its self-consciousness and 
continue to exist like an atom, without manifesting the properties 
apparent in a previous combination or " incarnation." Hence we 
require to know whether it is the same mind that manifests itself 
after death as before. Facts which present (i) supernormal 
knowledge, due neither to chance nor to normal sense-perception, and 
(2) evidence of the personal identity or the personal memories of 
the deceased, are the data needed to prove the isolation of an indi- 
vidual consciousness from its physical organism. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE PROBLEMS OF EVIDENCE 

THE present chapter is closely connected with the preceding, 
for the nature of the problem largely determines the 
nature of the evidence. But the problem has been so 
complicated by concern with religion and magic that these subjects 
are inevitably brought into the discussion; various problems of ab- 
normal psychology are also involved. So many facts are 
erroneously claimed by unsophisticated minds to be proof of the 
intervention of spirits, that a very large field has to be canvassed 
in the search for evidential material. 

Besides, the sifting of evidence is a very complex matter. A fact 
in relation to another fact may be evidence, but out of that rela- 
tion the same fact might not be evidence at all. It is therefore 
necessary briefly to examine the law of evidence. Let me take 
some concrete illustrations. 

A human body is found with a bullet hole in the head and a re- 
volver lying near the body. If nothing is known about the person 
either suicide or murder may account for the situation. If the 
man is known to have been despondent, to have failed in business or 
some other project, or to have been generally disappointed with 
life, the suspicion of suicide becomes stronger, and anything like 
knowledge of a previous threat of it would weaken the hypothesis 
of murder. On the other hand, if the man is known to have been 
an upright person in the community, a religious man, successful in 
business, with a happy family and nothing to make him unhappy, 
the theory of suicide would be less tenable. Not the mere fact of 
death by a bullet wound decides the question, but other general 
facts in the person's life are included in the evidence. 

Suppose, however, that we know nothing about the man and his 
life and have to seek evidence from other sources. If, then, we 
tmd that the revolver was purchased at a certain store, not by the 

54 



THE PROBLEMS OF EVIDENCE 55 

victim, this discovery would provide circumstantial evidence that 
the man had not committed suicide. It would not constitute proof, 
as the victim might have secured the weapon after its purchase. 
Suppose, however, that finger prints on the weapon are those not 
of the victim but those of the purchaser. This fact would greatly 
strengthen the suspicion of murder. Only an alibi or proof that 
these same finger marks had been observed on the revolver before 
the man's death could remove that suspicion. If now we should 
discover boot tracks near the body, and these tracks could be iden- 
tified with those of the purchaser of the weapon, we should have 
additional, though not conclusive, evidence of his guilt. If to this 
we could add evidence that he had previously threatened the man 
with death, had been a personal enemy, and had actually been in 
the vicinity at the time, the case would be very nearly established. 
The convergence of a large number of incidents, each of which 
alone might look like chance coincidence, would prove the deed. 
All the facts must consist with the hypothesis. Mere coincidence 
between two events does not prove a connection between them, 
though it may suggest a hypothesis. This coincidence must be as- 
sociated with a number of others, all of which hang together. But 
the uneducated mind rests content with a single coincidence and in 
this way is led into all sorts of errors. 

When it considers evidence for the existence of spirits the un- 
trained mind has always been accustomed to appeal to every " won- 
derful " occurrence as proper evidence. It frequently regards any 
unusual fact as an incentive to apply explanations that do not fit. 
It is not merely the unusual character of a fact that gives it eviden- 
tial interest or force. It must be unusual if it is to be evidence of a 
fact hitherto unknown, but it need not be any more unusual than 
the fact which it attests. This is perhaps a truism; but, because 
prejudiced people try to represent as miraculous or supernatural 
the facts which psychic research adduces as evidence of spirits, it 
is necessary to make clear two things : ( i ) that no one regards as 
supernatural the new discoveries constantly being made in physical 
science; (2) that the idea of spirits is no more strange than that of 
a new element in chemistry. They are but the continuation of the 
consciousness we formerly knew as embodied. 



56 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

It was the work of the Society for Psychical Research to dis- 
criminate among the phenomena it was investigating. Its first 
task was to classify them and to distinguish between those relevant 
to the hypothesis of spirits and those that have no bearing on the 
subject. The spiritualists had classed together all unusual phe- 
nomena, physical and mental, claiming all of them as spiritistic. 

Before we have any right to assert or suppose the existence of 
spirits, we must adduce facts that imply supernormal knowledge, 
and this supernormal knowledge must be such as could be obtained 
only by communication from the dead. The term normal is purely 
relative. We can best give its meaning by illustrations. For in- 
stance, we can normally .see a house some miles distant, but we 
could not normally see a fly at the same distance. The term normal 
is relative to the conditions limiting the activity of our senses. 
The existence of the normal, as well as of the supernormal, has to 
be proved by evidence. Only because this proof is easily within the 
reach of every one, we forget the grounds on which it rests. The 
limits of the supernormal are also determined by evidence, not by 
definition. If a man in America should have an accurate vision 
of events in Europe, we should call his perception supernormal, 
whatever the process involved. Whether such a vision has actually 
occurred is only a matter of evidence; we cannot say that it is im- 
possible. 

But before we admit the existence of anything so unusual we 
require that the evidence be critically tested and that the facts be 
inexplicable by any known law. To call such a phenomenon as 
the vision of events in Europe clairvoyance, is to give the fact 
a name, not an explanation. If the claim tO' the vision could not 
be confirmed by testimony from some one else than the visionary, 
we should not regard it as proved. The veracity of the person 
might not be questioned, but some illusion or mistake of judgment 
might stand in the way of our accepting his statement. If the 
reporter and subject of the experience were a scientific man, the 
statement would have more weight than if he were an ignorant 
layman, simply because the scientific man has the habit of accurate 
observation and statement. But even then there would be the 
possibility of error unless his account could be confirmed by the. 



THE PROBLEMS OF EVIDENCE 57 

testimony of others. If a scientific man were to relate such an ex- 
perience in a detailed manner, before the objective facts could 
become known to him and those in his vicinity, corroboration by 
others would exempt him from the suspicion of error, illusion, or 
mendacity. The facts would then stand oTit as unusual, and per- 
haps as requiring a new law to explain them. 

Conclusive evidence of an hypothesis must exclude every inter- 
pretation except the one supposed; it must conform to two condi- 
tions, one positive and the other negative. The exclusion of a 
given interpretation is negative evidence; the applicability of the 
hypothesis to the facts is positive evidence. Thus the exclusion 
of fraud would be negative evidence for spiritism, if that were the 
theory in question. But the fitness of the facts to prove the special 
theory concerned, say the survival of personal identity, would be 
positive evidence. If spirits are to be proved to exist, the facts 
must indicate the continued personal identity of deceased persons, 
must be verified by living people, and provably supernormal in 
their origin. 

In estimating the alleged evidence for the existence of spirits 
we have first to eliminate the explanations grouped under the name 
of fraud. This may take the form of lying about the facts, or 
trickery in performing feats claimed to be of spirit origin. But 
we must be exact in our conception of fraud. Fraud is not the 
act performed, btit the motive of the act. It implies the conscious 
purpose to deceive, whether by false statements or by acts calculated 
to lead one to form incorrect judgments as to the facts. If a man 
should make a false statement in his sleep, or in a trance, or under 
hypnosis, I should have no right to ascribe lying or fraud to him. 
He himself might be deceived by dreams, hallucinations, or illusions. 
Hence many actions and statements are exempt from the suspicion 
of fraud, for instance, all actions and statements during som- 
nambulism, trance, hysteria (if of an automatic type), ordinary 
sleep, intoxication, insanity (if of the hallucinatory type), and 
similar abnormal mental conditions. We must have proof that 
the person is normally conscious in order to attribute fraud to him. 

Moreover we must not confuse the deception of the observer with 
the purpose of the actor.. The fraudulent person aims at deception. 



58 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

by misrepresentation. The deception of the conjurer, on the other 
hand, is legitimate enough, because he does not claim any super- 
normal elements in his exhibitions. The observer lets himself be 
deceived by what the conjurer frankly avows is a trick. But the 
fraudulent person maintains that the apparent facts are real, 
despite his knowledge to the contrary. If the person is normal, 
his honesty may be judged by his acts ; but if the subject is abnormal, 
the phenomena are in the domain of abnormal psychology, not of 
trickery. 

We are concerned, however, solely with the cause and the ex- 
planation of experiences, not with the motive of the subject. That 
cause may be subjective or objective. If the experience has no dis- 
coverable sensory stimulus and yet coincides with some objective 
event out of the reach of normal sense-perception it is supernormal. 
Honesty has no importance in determining the nature of the phe- 
nomena. Only tests to exclude normal knowledge and sensation 
can decide whether the facts are supernormal or not. For this 
reason the scientist does not care whether he is dealing with frauds 
or not, if only he can determine the conditions under which the 
phenomena are produced. The fraudulent person, of course, will 
not usually, if ever, permit this sort of experiment. But if the 
dishonest subject will submit to scientific conditions we shall not 
enter into the consideration of character or motives. However, 
in the work of persuading the public it is important to be assured 
that the subject of experiment is honest, because the public wrongly 
assumes that phenomena are genuine if the subject is honest. 

But we have not satisfied all the conditions of evidence for the 
supernormal merely by removing the fact or, the relevance of fraud. 
We must reckon with the subconscious or subliminal functions of 
the mind. At one time subconscious mental activities were as yet 
undiscovered. We could not then reckon with subconscious action 
as an alternative to genuine supernormal experience. The choice 
lay between the fraudulent and the genuine in all normal persons. 
But the discovery that the mind has subconscious activities has com- 
pletely altered the situation. We have all along known what we 
called " unconscious," by which we meant merely involuntary, 
actions, whose meaning we ourselves learned as they proceeded. 



THE PROBLEMS OF EVIDENCE 59 

Here lies the border-land of the subconscious. Strictly speaking, 
subconscious or subliminal actions are those of which the subject 
is wholly unaware. Our thoughts and actions in sleep, hypnosis, 
or trance are illustrations. In our normal state, we have no recol- 
lection of them. The distinctive marks of subconscious activities 
are anaesthesia and amnesia, i. e., insensibility and inability to re- 
member. In sleep, trance, somnambulism, hysteria and various 
forms of insanity these phenomena are constant. They show the 
continuance of mental action after normal sensibility or conscious- 
ness has been suppressed. 

Now we may exclude fraud from the explanation of alleged 
supernormal phenomena and yet have subconscious action of the 
subject to reckon with in explaining them. If apparently super- 
normal phenomena can be explained by the resurrection of sub- 
conscious memories or the production of automatic actions the claims 
of supernormality must be abandoned. Suppose, for instance, that 
John Smith reported to us that he had seen the ghost of Mary 
Jones. Having established his honesty, we should then wish to 
know whether he knew that Mary Jones was dead. If he did, we 
might explain the circumstance as a casual hallucination or a dream. 
The operation of memory would suffice to explain it, or to classify 
it with known facts. If Mary Jones were found to be alive, the 
case would be strengthened. If Mary Jones had died without John 
Smith's knowledge, we might still consider the vision a chance 
coincidence. It would be more difficult to explain it thus, if we 
found that the apparition occurred very close to the time of death. 
The time element is always an important factor in eliminating 
chance; close correspondence of the experience with the event in- 
dicated by it strengthens the case. But the question of chance 
coincidence and guessing enters only after we have eliminated the 
subconscious. 

Many visions and hallucinations are referable to the subconscious, 
because their content can be reduced to previous experiences. We 
cannot assume that there are supernormal dreams or visions un- 
til we have eliminated the influence of previous experience upon 
the contents of the incidents. Hence, until we can report dreams 
or visions of verifiable facts not previously known to the subject, 



6o CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

we are obliged to suspect subconscious memory as a sufficient ex- 
planation. 

We must remember, however, that the nature and limits of the 
subconscious have not been accurately determined. This is both 
an advantage and a difficulty to the defender of the supernormal. 
It is an advantage because it challenges the advocate of subconscious 
action to show whether the process has been proved to include 
cases of the kind in question. It is a disadvantage, however, be- 
cause the defender of the subconscious as an explanation may 
insist that its unassigned limits permit him to suppose its power to 
be unlimited. 

Scientific method, however, does not allow us to use the subcon- 
scious as an explanation beyond its proved capacities. We have 
no evidence that the subliminal, of its own power and apart from 
normal sensory stimuli, can acquire any knowledge. It has no 
known transcendental powers. It is a name for mental action 
below the threshold of consciousness, or above it, if you wish to 
include hyperaesthetic conditions, but it is always dependent on 
normal stimuli for its contents, unless the supernormal be at once 
granted as a fact. Its capacity is thus as limited as that of the 
normal mind, and it exhibits no functions other than those of the 
normal mind, even when real or alleged supernormal phenomena 
filter through it. 

This limitation of subliminal activity is a restriction on the 
skeptic who wishes to apply it as a universal explanation. He 
must first show the relevance of the application, which depends on 
showing that the previous knowledge supplied the subject with the 
data for subliminal use ; and his application must be strictly limited 
by the proved capacities and habits of the subconscious. 

It is important to note that the subconscious may be the vehicle 
for the transmitting supernormal knowledge. It may be the med- 
ium beween the transcendental world, if there be such a thing, and 
the physical world, and so may respond to stimuli from both 
sources. This view of the subconscious makes it the medium or 
vehicle for the acquisition of supernormal knowledge; the only 
refuge of the skeptic is to deny the source of the contents claimed 
to be supernormal. If he proves that the contents have been sub- 



THE PROBLEMS OF EVIDENCE 61 

consciously acquired from normal experience, he can disqualify 
the evidence for the supernormal. In fact it is contents that must 
furnish the evidence. No assumption or discussion of the powers 
of the subliminal will decide the matter. If the phenomena are 
not traceable to physical stimuli, their explanation must be sought 
in the transcendental. The conditions under which the facts oc- 
cur can alone decide the question, not the assumed or proved func- 
tions of the mind, conscious or subconscious. 

It will thus be seen that we have to define carefully what we 
mean by the subconscious before we employ it as an explanation 
of the alleged supernormal. The believer in the supernormal has 
to prove that the normal senses were not the source or vehicle of 
the facts. The conditions under which the phenomena occur will 
determine this. The appeal to the subconscious will be irrelevant 
unless previous normal experience accounts for the special facts 
which appear id be supernormal. If these facts are based on such 
experience the claims for the supernormal are vitiated. 

All this is perhaps obvious to most people; but I thought it was 
necessary carefully to analyze the problem. We now have made 
it clear that when conscious fraud has been eliminated, we have 
still to test the claim of any alleged supernormal phenomenon, 
such as telepathy, clairvoyance, apparitions, mediumistic communi- 
cations with the dead, and dousing, by their relation to the normal 
knowledge and process of the subject. All precautions must be 
taken to exclude these normal processes when we assert that we 
have a transcendental fact to be explained. Proximity in time or 
space of the subject to the fact supernormally known may raise 
doubts of its authenticity, though these can be settled by a number 
of conditions. But great distance in time and space and all the 
conditions that will exclude previous normal knowledge by the 
subject will make an appeal to subliminal memories of doubtful 
value. The use of strangers and the employment of controlled ex- 
periments will dislodge the doubts attachable to spontaneous phe- 
nomena, and will easily disprove the presumption of subconscious 
influences, especially when the facts are provably unknown by the 
subject. 

But assume that we have eliminated the subconscious from the 



62 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

explanation of the facts. The exclusion of subconscious influences 
will not prove that each individual phenomenon is genuine. There 
are still the possibilities of chance coincidence, or guessing. This, 
however, can easily be eliminated by any intelligent person. Bring 
two strangers together, and record what happens. Let A be the 
psychic and B the sitter. If A, without knowing the person pres- 
ent, without questions, without even seeing the person, who may 
have come for the first time from the other side of the globe, 
should give the sitter s name, state that he was a diamond miner, 
that his father's name was Chelmsford and that both his father 
and mother were dead, that the mother had given him a special 
picture of a little church on the corner of the street opposite their 
home — if these incidents should occur under such circumstances, 
we should have facts that would at least appear to exclude chance 
and guessing. Indeed it is easy to eliminate the supposition of 
coincidence by repeating the experiments. They may be exposed, 
though hardly in the present supposed circumstances, to the sus- 
picion of fraud and subconscious knowledge; but they are not 
explicable by chance coincidence or guessing. Nevertheless we 
have always to think of these possibilities in estimating the value 
of the facts purporting to be supernormal. Isolated instances of 
these facts may be explained by chance or guessing, but a large 
collective mass of them, such as have appeared in the publications 
of the Societies for Psychical Research, cannot be so explained. 

The four objections previously mentioned are the four most usual 
objections to belief in supernormal experience. We may, perhaps, 
regard secondary personality as a fifth. But secondary or mul- 
tiple personality is only an organized form of subconscious action. 
Ordinary subconscious actions are isolated' and do not represent 
another person in their collective meaning. But the secondary per- 
sonality presents all the appearance of a complete and different self. 
Illustrations of this are the Ansel Bourne, the Charles Brewin, 
the Sally Beauchamp, and the Wilson cases. I might add, too, the 
French cases, those of Lucie and Leonie. In them the person 
went into states resembling hypnosis, as completely separated from 
the normal personality as another human being would be. The 
jjormal self did not remember anything about the subnormal self, 



THE PROBLEMS OF EVIDENCE 63 

though in some cases the secondary personaHty was aware of the 
primary self as another person. In others the amnesia was com- 
plete on both sides. When any phenomena purporting to be spirit- 
istic can be explained by dual or multiple personality, we have to 
exclude the hypothesis of spirits from the explanation. Other 
forms of the supernormal are not connected with secondary per- 
sonality, or if connected with it, are not explicable by it. Many, 
perhaps most, cases of secondary personality have nothing to do 
with the question of the existence of spirits. Sometimes the claim 
is made of spirit agency; but if the contents of the subject's state- 
ments could be obtained by normal experience, the hypothesis of 
spirits is not legitimate. Any objection to spiritistic claims based 
on this form of phenomena is but an application of the explanation 
by subconscious influences, and we need to mention the fact only 
because it is not generally understood that dual personality is an 
example oi the subconscious mind. 

But we have not decided the case in behalf of the supernormal 
when we have excluded fraud, chance, and guessing, subconscious 
action, secondary personality, hysteria and forms of insanity. We 
do, however, establish the possibility of it when we have excluded 
them; its proof thereafter depends on the quantity and quality of 
positive evidence. The exclusion of alternative explanation is only 
negative evidence; the possession of certain facts relevant to the 
kind of process supposed is required for positive evidence. 

We may indeed prove dousing, telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis, 
and perhaps some other forms of the supernormal without admit- 
ting the existence of the discarnate; these facts may even be used 
in opposing spiritistic theories, as in the case of telepathy, which 
has been invoked to displace spiritistic interpretations. So long as 
it is conceivably applicable to the phenomena, it will stand as an 
objection to the hypothesis of spirits. When coincidence between 
the thoughts of two persons can account for the facts without 
the assumption of the personal identity of the dead, the hypothesis 
of telepathy is an objection to the application of spiritistic explana- 
tions. Telepathy, therefore, has the force of an objection in cer- 
tain cases. The facts taken as evidence for spirits must run the 
gauntlet of all the previous objections named, whether these objec- 



64 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

tions take the form of normal or supernormal explanations. 
Spiritistic evidence consists of facts which can be explained only 
by the continued personal identity of deceased persons, involving 
memories possessed by the deceased person and transmitted to the 
living by supernormal means. That is, we cannot believe in the 
existence of spirits until they are able to prove their personal iden- 
tity, their conscious memory, by transmitting facts of their ter- 
restrial lives to the living by apparitions, mediums, telekinesis, or 
some other supernormal method. 

The one best means of proving this personal identity is the trans- 
mission of facts, for these are least likely to be referable to normal 
channels of knowledge. The more trivial the better; that is, the 
more likely to characterize the one person whose identity is con- 
cerned. A single trivial incident will not suffice. There must be 
a number of them which articulate rightly and have had a psycho- 
logical or other interest for the person claiming to communicate. 
If a man should enumerate the books he had written, the statement 
would have no value at all, as it would be obtainable from the 
normal knowledge of the psychic or person offering it as evidence. 
The man's important deeds or the conspicuous events of his life are 
worthless as evidence of his survival, unless you can prove they 
were not known to the psychic. It is more difficult to prove ig- 
norance of these events than of private and trivial facts of his 
career. Trivial incidents are the best evidence of identity. The 
ridicule applied to the triviality of communications from the dead 
is therefore unjustified. 

The reason why most people object to the triviality of the facts 
adduced is that they assume that these communications indicate the 
character of life in the spiritual world. But' in proving the existence 
of spirits we are not concerned about their status or life in the 
transcendental w^orld. We are not investigating that problem. 
We are trying to prove that spirits exist, not that they are wise or 
exalted in their intelligence ; and the materialistic theory itself pre- 
scribes for us, as we have seen, the nature of the problem and of 
the evidence for its solution. We have long been taught that the 
next life is an idyllic one, a life which throws off the limitations 
of the present. This may be true or it may not be true. With 



THE PROBLEMS OF EVIDENCE 65 

that question we have no concern in the scientific problem of a 
spiritual existence. We are trying totascertain whether conscious- 
ness survives, not whether it is transcendentally exalted in intel- 
ligence or placed in an ideal world. Materialism makes it neces- 
sary to prove the survival of personal identity as the condition of 
any spiritual existence at all. Nothing but trivial facts will prove 
this; they are not brought forward as evidence in any respect of 
the spirit's intelligence. 

The popular objections to triviality in the evidence explains why 
so many run after revelations of the nature of the future life. 
They suppose that, if communication between the spiritual and the 
physical world is possible at all, all sorts of revelations and com- 
munications about it are accessible. But no revelation of such a 
world can be evidence of its existence, unless verifiable by methods 
which will show that it is trustworthy. Thousands accept such 
revelations as evidence and pay no attention to trivial facts in 
proof of identity or scientific methods of investigation and criticism. 
They are only preparing to be deceived. Verification is an im- 
portant feature of evidence, and verification is possible only by the 
testimony of the living or by a vast system of cross references and 
repetitions of messages impossible now to carry out. In proving 
identity, especially if we wish to exclude telepathy from the explana- 
tion, we must not only have trivial facts of a supernormal kind and 
illustrative of personal identity, but they must be verified by living 
people. This connects the past personality with a present con- 
sciousness and readily verifies the statement of the psychic. But 
any fact which cannot be verified by a living person is not worth a 
penny as evidence. Revelations are not verifiable by individual 
testimony of living people and occupy no place whatever in the scien- 
tific problem as affecting the existence of spirits. 

Telekinesis, or movement of physical objects without contact, 
is usually regarded as conclusive evidence of the existence of spirits ; 
but, in reality, it is not evidence of it at all. Only mental phenom- 
ena will prove the existence of spirits. Physical phenomena unac- 
companied by mental phenomena showing intelligence or personal 
identity are absolutely worthless as evidence. They may be very 
interesting phenomena, and they may arouse the lethargic physicist 



66 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

to revise some of his previous views, but they cannot be adduced in 
evidence of spirits until the existence of the latter has been other- 
wise proved and their association with telekinesis also proved. 

This examination of evidential problems in general prepares the 
way for a consideration of the facts adduced in proof of the super- 
normal and of the existence of spirits. We have only been out- 
lining problems here and showing how complicated are the condi- 
tions necessary to the admission of any supernormal experiences 
whatever and especially the existence of discamate spirits — 
though I am inclined to think that it ought to be easier, in the light 
of the facts on record, to admit the existence of spirits than to 
admit the claims of telepathy. But with that question we have 
nothing to do at present. We have been concerned with determin- 
ing the principles of evidence in any field and the special conditions 
which affect it in psychic research. We have excluded fraud, sub- 
conscious mental action, secondary personality, chance coincidence, 
guessing, hysteria and other kindred phenomena as explanations of 
the apparently supernormal ; we have then excluded several types of 
the supernormal from the evidence for discarnate spirits. Posi- 
tive evidence for the discarnate we have shown to be supernormal 
knowledge indicating the continued personal identity of the dead. 



CHAPTER VII 
HUMAN PERSONALITY 

THERE are three distinct meanings for the term " per- 
sonaHty," two of them general and popular and the third 
technical and philosophical. The first and most general 
meaning is that personality is the sum of the characteristics which 
make up physical and mental being. These include appearance, 
manners, habits, tastes and moral character. The second meaning 
emphasizes the characteristics that distinguish one person from an- 
other. The two meanings overlap or merge into each other, as 
the first considers all characteristics pertaining to the individual, 
without comparing him with others, while the second sees the 
same facts in relation to the outside world and fixes attention 
mainly upon the features that distinguish the subject from his 
fellows. This second meaning is equivalent to individuality. It 
represents a widely prevalent conception of the term. 

But the third meaning is the most important, and is the only con- 
ception of any value to the psychic researcher and the philosopher 
or psychologist. This conception of personality is concerned only 
with mental characteristics; it makes no distinction between com- 
mon and specific marks. In fact it connotes mental processes rather 
than fixed qualities. The capacity for having mental states, or the 
fact of having them, constitutes personality for the psychologist and 
the philosopher. Personality is thus the stream of consciousness, 
regardless of the question whether any special state is constant or 
casual, essential or unessential. Physical marks will have no place 
in this conception, unless they may serve as symbols of mental 
states. It abstracts from them and denotes only the stream of men- 
tal phenomena. 

This third meaning is so radically different from the other two 
that it gives rise to perpetual misunderstandings between the 
philosopher and the public. These misunderstandings arise par- 
ticularly in the discussion of survival after death. The laymanj, 

67 



68 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

with his conception of personahty, looks for physical phenomena of 
some kind to illustrate or prove it. Consequently, if interested in 
psychic phenomena at all, he prefers materialization, which best 
satisfies his conception of personality. He cannot take the point 
of view O'f the psychologist or the philosopher, who neglects these 
purely sensory characteristics, and fixes his attention on mental 
states as the proper conception of the personality which may sur- 
vive. Materialization would supply the very characteristics which 
the layman fixes upon to represent personality. But precisely the 
fact that mental states are not presented to sense, leads the philos- 
opher to conceive o-f immortality as possible. 

If the layman's conception were correct the philosopher and psy- 
chologist would deny the possibility of survival with entire confi- 
dence, as a necessary implication of bodily dissolution. The day 
could be saved only by the doctrine of a *' spiritual body," an 
" astral body," or an '' ethereal organism," supposedly a replica of 
the physical organism in its spatial and other characteristics. These 
represent personality after the manner or analogy of the physical 
body. The real spirit may indeed have a transcendental bodily 
form; but the stream of consciousness remains the same whether 
there is any '' spiritual body " or " ethereal organism " or no^. 
This is the fundamental element in all conceptions of spiritual real- 
ity. It is not necessary to decide the question of a " spiritual body " 
or " ethereal organism " as the condition of believing in the exist- 
ence of spirits. That is another an4 perhaps a secondary problem. 
What we need to know is, whether the stream of consciousness 
survives, whether the personal memory continues, not how it con- 
tinues. The fact of survival is to be considered first and the 
condition of it afterwards. 

We have to determine the survival of personality in the same 
way that we determine whether another person in the body is con- 
scious. We are so accustomed to think that we have direct knowl- 
edge of other personalities, that we forget the exceedingly compli- 
cated nature of the process of ascertaining whether other people 
are conscious. That this process is the same as that of ascertain- 
ing the existence of discarnate spirits will be apparent from the 
following considerations: 



HUMAN PERSONALITY 69 

1. I have direct knowledge of my own existence both bodily and 
mental. I reach knowledge of my body by sensation and of my 
mental states by introspection. In fact, introspection is at the basis 
of my consciousness of bodily as well as mental existence. In 
both cases my knowledge of my own existence is direct and is not 
a matter of inference from facts which are capable of various in- 
terpretations. 

2. I have no direct knowledge of any other consciousness in the 
world than my own. I have knowledge of other bodies only 
through my interpretation of sensations, and I have no direct knowl- 
edge that consciousness inhabits those bodies. I have to ascertain 
that fact by inference from certain phenomena occurring in con- 
junction with those bodies; for instance, behavior that seems to 
indicate in others the same kind of mental states as those behind my 
own acts. I observe certain motor or muscular phenomena pre- 
cisely like my own, and I infer the same cause for them. 

3. Death is only slightly different from paralysis or catalepsy. 
It involves the permanent lapse of consciousness, so far as our 
normal observation is concerned. In time the body also ceases to 
function and is dissolved. The materialist assumes that personality 
or consciousness disappears with it and can never reappear. Be- 
lieving, as he does, that personality is a function of the organism, 
he consistently assumes that it does not exist after the death of 
the body. But he does not know directly that this is a fact. He 
never saw personality, nor have any of us seen it, as we see our own 
bodies or the bodies of others; and the materialist assumes that 
the only way to know anything directly is through sense-perception. 
In catalepsy and paralysis personality or consciousness seems to have 
disappeared. The recovery of normal consciousness in such cases 
shows that there it suffered only a lapse ; followed by the resump- 
tion of organic functions. But there is no such resumption of 
functions after death, and the materialist therefore concludes that 
consciousness has become non-existent, like digestion, circulation, 
secretion and other functions of the organism. These undoubtedly 
disappear never to reappear; and, if personality is a similar func- 
tion of the body, it too must disappear. Since we have no direct 
knowledge of this personality in others, even in life, and since we 



70 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

cannot from normal experience infer its continued existence after 
death, we have to fall back upon facts derived from abnormal con- 
ditions or processes different from sensory experience, if we are 
to infer its survival. 

Now psychic research is occupied with the effort to find facts 
from which we can infer the survival of personality. So we have 
seen in the previous chapter, fraud, subconscious actions, chance 
coincidence, guessing, and telepathy must be excluded as explana- 
tions before we can accept this evidence for survival. Assuming 
that this exclusion has been effected in any case, as in veridical ap- 
paritions and test mediumistic phenomena, we can only infer that 
personality has continued to exist after death, as it existed in 
paralysis and catalepsy when we had supposed it destroyed. Death 
has interrupted its causal action in the world; therefore, unless at 
some point it can resume that causal action on or through the liv- 
ing, we should have to remain without scientific evidence for its 
continuance after death. 

To summarize the argument : ( i ) We know personality or con- 
sciousness directly or introspectively only in ourselves. (2) We 
know the existence of personality or consciousness in others only 
indirectly or by inference from behavior manifested in some form 
of action. (3) Catalepsy and paralysis in some cases involve a 
disappearance of personality similar to that of death, but its re- 
appearance shows that it was still present when it was supposed to 
be non-existent. (4) Death offers a situation only slightly differ- 
ent from that of catalepsy and paralysis. Consciousness ceases to 
function, and we should remain in total ignorance of its con- 
tinued existence, unless we ascertain facts which necessitate the 
inference of its persistence. 

It is the stream of consciousness that is of primary importance 
in the question of survival. There might be " spiritual bodies,'* 
** astral bodies," or "ethereal organisms" without personality; it 
only defers the real problem to assume or prove their existence. 
Ultimately we are driven to the discovery of facts which will prove 
the continuance of personality as a stream of consciousness, by the 
method here used — namely, the isolation of consciousness from 
the body or the production of facts from which an inference can be 



HUMAN PERSONALITY 71 

drawn that this personaHty has persisted beyond death and is not 
a function of the physical body. 

If there is anything at all perplexing about personality, the per- 
plexity lies in the consideration of " split personality," *' alternations 
of personality," " secondary personality," *' dual personality " or 
" multiple personality," all of which are interchangeable terms. In 
former times, the personality or soul was held to be an indivisible 
unit. In its early history the dogma of the immortality of the soul 
was based upon this unity. For so long as the soul was believed to 
be indivisible its survival was assured, under the doctrine of the 
imperishability of the atoms or elements. But if consciousness is 
after all divisible into several selves, the argument, for its immor- 
tality from its unity falls to the ground. 

I shall not undertake at this juncture to solve the problem. I 
am here only explaining the perplexity which the alternation of 
personality offers to those who have based their belief in survival 
upon the unity of consciousness. What we must do is to prove sur- 
vival independently of the question whether personality is simple 
and indivisible or not. It might be as complex in a spiritual world 
as it is here. Metaphysics will not settle the matter. We must 
have argument based on proved facts, not on mere beliefs. The 
appeal to the unity of personality affected only those who were 
bred in the old metaphysics, before the establishment of scientific 
method. In any case the problem of survival after death must 
depend on the question of fact, not on the nature of personality as 
conceived by traditional metaphysics. 



CHAPTER VIII 
TELEPATHY 

TELEPATHY is a process now very widely assumed as an 
alternative to the spiritistic hypothesis. It is more or 
less synonymous with '' mind reading " or " thought trans- 
ference," which were the expressions in use before the more tech- 
nical term was coined and adopted. It would have had little or 
no recognition if it had not been useful in displacing the supposi- 
tion of spirits in the interpretation of certain phenomena. 

It was a group of spontaneous experiences, called " mind-read- 
ing," which attracted the attention of investigators. But most 
people used the expression to mean more than the facts justified. 
They assumed some supernormal ability to read the mind without 
the use of normal sense-perception and interpretation. That is, 
they made the phenomena more unusual and exceptional than they 
were, or at least more evidential than they actually were. The 
exhibitions of Cumberland and Bishop, as well as of persons imitat- 
ing them, can be explained as muscle-reading. It is necessary to 
discriminate between unusually delicate sensations, and the impart- 
ing of knowledge without any sense-perception. Muscle-reading 
depends on detecting unconscious acts of a person by a performer, 
and any conditions of contact that make muscle-reading possible 
under the circumstances discredits the phenomena as evidence for 
anything more. Muscle-reading may be defined as the interpreta- 
tion by the operator of unconscious muscular movements in the 
subject experimented on. It is evident therefore that phenomena 
referable to it are not evidence of any agency transcending sense- 
perception. 

The term telepathy was coined to express exactly and technically 
this transmission of thought from one mind to another without 
sensory perception even of the hypersesthetic type. Whether such 
transmission actually exists was yet to be proved; hence the term 

73 



TELEPATHY 73 

represented only an hypothesis, not a demonstrated fact. It was 
meant to exclude every form of sense-perception including the sub- 
conscious. It might be easy to exclude conscious sense-perception, 
even hypersesthesia, but it was not so easy to exclude subliminal 
sensibility. There was abundant evidence that subconsciously per- 
ceived stimuli existed. But we had to suppose that even subliminal 
perceptions were excluded from anything called telepathy; and 
the stimulus must be mere thought on the part of the sender, or 
agent. As thought is not a physical stimulus, any reception of it 
by another person could be said to be a phenomenon not involving 
normal sense-perception or even the interpretation of unconscious 
sensory stimuli. 

It is very important to take all these facts into account, because 
the term telepathy has been very widely used to denote a process 
that would explain much more than the phenomena which it was 
coined merely to describe. The founders of the English Society 
defined the term as the " transmission of thought independently of 
the recognized channels of sense." I have preferred to define tele- 
pathy as " coincidence, excluding normal sense-perception, betw^een 
the thoughts of two minds." There is no essential difference be- 
tween this definition and that by the English Society. The original 
founders of the Society probably did not intend that the term 
should imply or express a definite process of explanation; but the 
use of the term " transmission " and the assumption, at least for 
scientific cautiousness, that this ^' transmission " was a direct pro- 
cess between living minds and not in any way connected v/ith the 
action of spirits, soon gave the term an implication which it did 
not originally have. All that we strictly know is that A's thought 
gets into the mind of B, without reference to the process by which 
this effect was brought about. We know only the fact of a coin- 
cidence inexplicable by chance or normal sense-perception. We 
have no reason to assume that it is a process exclusively between 
living people and not permitting the intervention of the dead, if the 
discarnate exist and can act on the living. 

It thus became necessary to define very exactly the meaning of 
the term telepathy, absolutely excluding either the evidence or the 
iction of the discarnate, or both, or else defining it with such breadth 



74 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

as to include any undiscovered process of transcendental action be- 
tween minds of any kind, whether incarnate or discarnate. Only 
the former meaning of the term would bring it into rivalry with 
the spiritistic theory, while the latter would permit the employment 
of the term to describe the action of discarnate as well as incarnate 
minds. There has been a growing tendency among some of the 
members of the English Society to extend the meaning of the term 
so that it might include transmission of thoughts between the living 
and the dead and between different discarnate minds, without fully 
realizing that they have cut off the right to use the term as excluding 
spiritistic interpretations of any or all of the phenomena involving 
transcendental transmission of thought. 

In its only proper meaning, telepathy is a term to name facts 
which are not evidence for the existence of spirits, and it implies 
no explanation whatever of the facts so named. The process, if 
we knew it, might include a relation between the incarnate and the 
discarnate, and between different discarnate minds, if such exist. 
But the term itself is only a name for facts whose explanation we 
do not know. The first object of the English Society was the es- 
timation of evidence, not the application of explanatory hypotheses. 
Telepathy involves no assumption of any known or hypothetical 
process to explain the coincidences cited as evidence of a supernor- 
mal relation between two minds. 

The phenomena cited to prove the existence of telepathy repre- 
sent the thoughts of A and the simultaneous acquisition or per- 
ception of them by B. There are no doubt coincidences between 
A's thoughts yesterday or ten years ago and those of B to-day or five 
years ago. But such coincidences would be no evidence of 
telepathy. But there has been a very marked tendency, even among 
supposed scientific students and investigators, to extend the import 
of the term to include coincidences between what may be a mere 
subconscious memory of A and the present thought of B. This 
extension of the meaning of telepathy has been adopted as an ex- 
planation of apparent spirit communications; that is, the messages 
which seem to indicate continued personal existence of the dead 
are regarded as a selection from among the sitter's subconscious 
memories, on the part of the medium. But no evidence whatever 



TELEPATHY 75 

has ever been produced to prove that B can select memories from 
the subconscious of A. There may be, as I think there are, some 
coincidences which look very like selection from the subconscious 
rather than the direct action of the agent upon the percipient; but 
these are too often complicated with associated incidents indicative 
of spirit agencies, to be disposed of as selective telepathy from the 
subconscious. 

Mediumistic phenomena too often suggest the action o»f spirits, 
to be cited as direct evidence for telepathy. The possibility of 
telepathy is only a ground for disqualifying an incident as evidence 
for the existence of spirits; but the fact that it is a possible alter- 
native explanation is no proof that is the correct explanation. The 
possibility of spirits and the fact that an incident is appropriate to 
illustrate the personal identity of a deceased person forbids using 
it as positive evidence for telepathy. One can only insist that one 
theory is as good as the other to account for the facts. The possi- 
bility of telepathy in the case may nullify the value of the fact as 
evidence for spirits, but it does not exclude the hypothetical ex- 
planation of the fact by spirits, if the incident involves a proved 
memory of a deceased person. But when facts arise which both 
indicate the continued personal identity of the dead and are not 
explicable by telepathy, the spiritistic theory must be conceded. 

Of course, the believer in telepathy replies that the proof for 
spirits has not been given and that telepathy still has the right of 
preference as a theory. But in order to make telepathy applicable 
to the facts, its defenders have unwarrantably extended its meaning. 
At first it was limited to the present active states of the agent and 
the percipient; that is, the present thoughts of A were received 
by B. Then, in order to avoid the acceptance of spiritism, its op- 
ponents invented, but did not prove, a selective telepathy. The 
meaning of the term was altered and extended to mean the selec- 
tion by B from the subconscious of A, of the facts necessary tc 
impersonate the deceased C. This selective process has not in any 
case been proved. But even the hypothesis of such telepathy is 
excluded when facts are obtained which B does not know about 
C, but which are verifiable from the mind of D, who is not present 
Hence, when one finds an incident that excludes both ordinar); 



76 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

telepathy with the normal consciousness and selective telepathy 
with the subliminal consciousness of the person present, one must 
. either abandon telepathy as an explanation or extend the meaning 
of the term to include selection from the mind of the absent D. 

This sort of telepathy has been supposed, but no evidence has 
been adduced for it, and I do not see how it would be possible to 
adduce such evidence. Every extension of the term beyond coin- 
cidences between the mental states of two persons is wholly with- 
out warrant. The introduction of the assumption that this coinci- 
dence is due to a direct transmission from one living mind to 
another has never been justified, and as there is no known process 
whatever associated with the coincidences, we are permitted to use 
the term only in a descriptive, not in an explanatory sense. 

An hypothesis may indeed explain facts that are not in them- 
selves evidence of that hypothesis, but only after adequate evidence 
has already been adduced for it. An hypothesis may thus be ap- 
plied to facts that are consistent with it but are not convincing 
evidence of it; and then associated incidents, not directly explained 
by the main hypothesis, will come under it as due to subsidiary 
causes consistent with it. But telepathy explains nothing — ^cer- 
tainly not those associated incidents which might be due to spir- 
itistic causes, though not primary evidence of them. It is only a 
discriminating device in the estimation of the evidential problem 
and so serves to postpone the final judgment of the case. It has 
no relevance to those attendant phenomena which might naturally 
follow the influence of a transcendental agent, especially on the 
supposition that it retains its identity, — for example, constitutional 
habits of the mind and organism that are often imitated by a 
medium, sometimes described as physical impersonation of the 
discarnate person. Very often the best proof of identity comes 
from this phenomenon, which bears no relation to telepathy. 

Let me summarize the position we have reached in the scientific 
investigation of unusual phenomena: 

I. There are in human experience a large number of coinci- 
dences inexplicable by fraud, secondary personality or subconscious 
creation, chance, or guessing. This general statement covers the 
whole field of psychic research, including telekinesis, or the move- 



TELEPATHY 77 

ment of physical objects without contact, if we sHghtly stretch the 
meaning of the term coincidence. It includes, regardless of ex- 
planation, apparently spiritistic as well as telepathic experiences, 
and the phenomena of dousing. Apparitions may be classed as 
either telepathic or spiritistic. 

Some explanation of these coincidences must be made. The 
coincidences are so numerous and so well accredited that no hypoth- 
esis which does not go as far as telepathy can have any standing 
whatever. But telepathy, if applicable, must be used in an explan- 
atory and theoretical, instead of in a descriptive, sense. If telep- 
athy is supposed to have powers of infinite selection and of 
impersonation, it may be invoked to oppose spiritistic explanations. 
But without this extension of meaning, it is powerless to explain 
the facts. 

The spiritualists, of course, at the outset applied the spiritistic 
hypothesis to the whole field, and were as negligent of the analysis 
of the problem as the telepathists. The telepathists, in their turn, 
showed the same carelessness, in attempting to explain everything 
mediumistic by telepathy. Neither party has fully realized the 
importance of subsidiary circumstances in the phenomena. The 
public assumes that spirits are beings that have all the apparent 
'properties of a living person except visibility and tangibility. The 
scientific man simply thinks of them as personal streams of con- 
sciousness, whatever else they may turn out to be; and capable 
of initiating or causing events in the physical world in cooperation 
with all sorts of bodily conditions and perhaps transcendental influ- 
ences other than themselves. The scientific spiritist recognizes 
different kinds of phenomena, and uses the term spirits only when 
he wishes it understood that they are the chief cause of the series 
of phenomena manifested. He may not know in the least how this 
cause operates ; he simply treats the facts as evidence of the exist- 
ence of spirits and their undefined causal relation to the phenomena, 
whatever other causes or complicating circumstances may be 
present. 

2. The rigidly scientific man has not yet accepted telepathy of 
any kind, unless as a possible hypothesis, w^hich has to be eliminated 
before the spiritistic theory can be admitted even as an hypothesis. 



78 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

But he well knows, when he concedes such a possibility, that it 
implies no explanation whatever of the facts. It merely classifies 
them as inexplicable and mysterious. The public seems not to 
regard them as mysterious at all, as it assumes that telepathy is a 
mere common-place, when in reality it involves considerations far 
more mysterious to scientific men than the spiritistic theory can 
possibly be. 

3. The experimental evidence for telepathy, as presented in 
the publications of the English Society, is still under dispute by 
scientific men, and some of its best data have apparently been 
discredited. I myself am not convinced of anything more than 
coincidences excluding chance and guessing, though I am willing to 
concede the point for the sake of argument. But there are many 
striking incidents in the Piper phenomena which, though not evi- 
dence to the continued personal existence of deceased persons, are 
undoubtedly supernormal. Similar incidents occur in the work 
of Mrs. Chenoweth. Scientific men would have to go at least as 
far as the admission of telepathy, in order to escape the spiritistic 
theory in the explanation of them. Even if the experimental evi- 
dence of the English Society were nullified, these incidents would 
make out an experimental case for telepathy of some kind. But 
so many of them imply the continued personal identity of the dead 
that telepathy is by no means the obvious explanation o-f them. 

4. Whatever real or alleged evidence there is for telepathy limits 
it to present active states of consciousness between agent and per- 
cipient. There is no scientific evidence for any of the following 
conceptions of it : ( i ) Telepathy as a process of selecting from 
the contents of the subconscious of any person in the presence of 
the percipient (2) Telepathy as a process of selecting from the 
contents of the mind of some distant person by the percipient and 
constructing these acquired facts into a complete simulation of a 
given personality. (3) Telepathy as a process of selecting mem- 
ories from any living people to impersonate the dead. (4) Telep- 
athy as implying the transmission of the thoughts of all living 
people to all others individually, with the selection of the necessary 
facts for impersonation from the sitter present. (5) Telepathy 
as involving a direct process between agent and percipient. (6) 



TELEPATHY 79 

Telepathy as explanatory in any sense whatever, implying any 
known cause. 

Such unsupported assumptions as these induce the scientific man 
to neglect the whole subject; but unless they can be sustained, there 
can be no appeal to telepathy as a rival of spiritistic hypotheses. 
There are facts which justify entertaining the possibility of telep- 
athy as a precaution against haste in accepting the spiritistic theory, 
but it has no relevance when these facts are incompatible with it, 
or have been otherwise accounted for. 

There is an interesting tendency of many minds to extend the 
application of telepathy until it coincides with the reading from 
other minds anything known by a living person. This is the 
fourth type mentioned before. It includes the conception also that 
even the memories or thoughts of some dead people couM also be 
acquired in this way without the supposition that they were obtained 
from the dead. Thus as Mr. Smith, who is living, receives tele- 
pathically the thoughts of all living people he has received the 
thoughts of all dead people who were more or less contemporary 
with him but died previously, and hence with them the thoughts 
of all dead people, prior to his own existence, but contemporary 
with those dead from whom he received his telepathic impressions. 
This theory would involve access to the memories of all dead people 
whatsoever back to the origin of the human race, and perhaps the 
impressions and states of consciousness of all animate life! 

While those who regard telepathy as operative on any fact 
known by the living are not conscious that they imply this extension 
of it, the assumption only awaits formulation to be recognized as 
virtually present. It means that no verifiable fact can be taken 
as evidence of the discarnate, and that we should have to accept 
unverifiable facts as data for proof! That is, if telepathy can 
reach all the thoughts of every living person, we could treat as 
evidence for spirits only facts outside its range — that is, facts 
not known by any living person, and such facts could not be veri- 
fied. But according to the extension of telepathy just explained, 
there are no unknown facts whatever, as presumably the thoughts 
of all living people would have been telepathically impressed on 
every other living person and with them also all the thoughts of the 



8o CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

dead who impressed their thoughts on some Hving person before 
their death. 

Such telepathy needs no serious consideration. But it is the 
logical result of the unverified and unverifiable hypotheses with 
which even psychic researchers play ducks and drakes with scien- 
tific method. If the simplest form of telepathy is still a subject 
of doubt for scientific men, what becomes of such a stupendous 
hypothesis as the one just defined? No intelligent man is called 
upon to take account of such extended hypotheses until the evi- 
dence is produced that they are probably facts or reasonably sup- 
posable. Their magnitude itself tells in favor of the spiritistic 
theory, because the latter hypothesis is the simplest explanation of 
the facts as observed and recorded. The telepathy assumed is both 
infinite and finite : infinite by implication and finite by the evidence 
of the facts. The failures in experiments to read the present active 
states of the agent and the inability to verify any thoughts outside 
those states, in the opinion of science, is so finite that its very exist- 
ence is doubted, while the extended hypothesis requires us to be- 
lieve in its infinity without evidence! But the natural and perti- 
nent selectiveness of characteristics relevant to the personal identity 
of deceased persons, and the absence of selectiveness relevant to 
the identity of living people; the mixed success and error in the 
facts obtained; the fact that a pictographic process explains so 
easily the mixture of success and error in many of the facts; the 
fragmentary character of the data, with confusion so easily explica- 
ble by misinterpretation of stimuli and the evident rapidity of the 
process; the difficulty in getting proper names, though this varies 
with the psychological constitution of the psychic; the frequently 
symbolic nature of the phenomena, showing intelligence in the se- 
lection of them, whereas telepathy is conceived after mechanical 
analogies ; all these are so inconsistent with telepathy in any form 
in w^hich it can be imagined, that no intelligent person who has 
critically examined and analyzed the facts would be tempted to use 
it as explanatory of the phenomena on record, though he might 
admit it as a convenient term for distinguishing between types of 
evidence for supernormal experience. As a name for the facts, 
with suspended judgment regarding explanation, it is tolerable; 



TELEPATHY 81 

but there can be no doubt that spirits explain certain facts, while 
telepathy explains nothing. At least as an hypothesis, therefore, 
the spiritistic theory has the priority and the burden of proof rests 
upon the telepathic theory. 



CHAPTER IX 
INSTANCES OF TELEPATHY AND SIMILAR PHENOMENA 

WE have discussed the meaning of the term telepathy and 
its elastic applications without adducing any facts in 
evidence either of its existence or of its explanatory 
character ; now it is time to ascertain what are the facts that have 
given rise to the conception. They will still further elucidate its 
meaning and especially will enable us to ascertain the extent to 
w^hich it is relevant to psychic research. The facts divide them- 
selves into three distinct types, neither of which furnishes evidence 
of the existence of discarnate spirits. 

These types are: (i) the spontaneous type, (2) the experi- 
mental type, and (3) a mixture of the spontaneous and the ex- 
perimental types. The spontaneous type has two forms: (a) 
coincidences between two persons' thoughts, without reference to 
death, and (b) coincidences connected with dying persons. In the 
mixed spontaneous and experimental type we shall find incidents 
referring to the dead, but not evidence for survival. 

Under the heading of spontaneous incidents I wish to adduce 
a number of coincidences between the thoughts of living people, 
coincidences which bear no suggestion of discarnate intelligence. 
They are usually trivial matters which, though they are evidence 
of something unusual and possibly supernormal, cannot be in any 
way adduced as evidence of the existence of spirits. 

I must premise the giving of incidents with the statement that 
I am not attempting to prove the existence of telepathy, but only 
to give illustrations of the kind of facts which have been used to 
prove it. While the incidents quoted will be partial proof of it, 
they will not suffice to establish so large a conclusion. If readers 
want scientific proof for telepathy, they must consult more elaborate 
records than can be quoted here. I can only select instances that 
cannot be explained as chance coincidence or normal sense-per- 

82 



INSTANCES OF TELEPATHY 83 

ception. Whether they suffice to prove what is usually understood 
by telepathy may be debated, but they do at least challenge skep- 
ticism to explain them. 

The first incidents will be taken from a diary kept by a lady, who 
therein recounted her coincidental experiences. It covers one 
year's time and includes 164 instances. I can take only a few as 
illustrations, and the selection shall be limited to cases that are 
wholly without suggestion of a relation to the dead. Each inci- 
dent might be treated as a chance coincidence, if taken alone; it is 
the. collective significance of the whole number that is of interest, 
though I can illustrate what I mean only by quoting them, without 
passing judgment on their value as proof. The dates given in the 
diary are omitted. 

" I was in the front sitting room and dared not go out of the 
room for the cold; my plants were awfully dry, and hearing E. 
[her niece] in the kitchen, I telepathed her to bring me in some 
water. She at once came with a jug full and asked if I would 
water the plants. " 

" My husband was sitting reading his newspaper and I lay on the 
couch thinking of the young men's concert which we are thinking 
of getting up and wishing he would give over reading, when he 
looked up from his paper and asked me a question about it. We 
had neither of us mentioned the subject before that day." 

" I willed very hard that Mr. Duke should come here before 12 
o'clock, just to prove I could bring him. He came just before 
the time. My husband was at home and I told him afterwards." 

'' This morning I was thinking of Mrs. T. B., and said how I 
should like her to come in; I wanted to speak to her. This was 
at 11.30 A. M.^ and in the afternoon she came, and I told her I was 
thinking of her in the morning, and she said she made up her mind 
to come while she was cleaning the kitchen up in the morning 
after 11 a. m." 

" I am again feeling Mr. Duke will call. He did, before E. had 
finished dusting the room. I knew he would. To-night a rap 
came at the front door. I felt it was a poor woman named M., 
and I told Mr. S. it was and I would not see her, and it was her. 
I had no reason for thinking it was her, only I felt it." 



84 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

" i expect to hear my Aunt Sarah is much worse or has passed 
away. I am thinking so much about her all day." 

On the next day the lady records in her diary : " The feeling 
about Aunt is not so strong today." 

Then again on the day following the note just mentioned the lady 
writes in her diary : '* I shall hear from Mrs. Ph. to-day. I did. 
We had a letter saying Aunt passed away at quarter to six o'clock 
on Sunday, 27th." 

This last date was the date of the first record in which the lady 
stated that she expected to hear that the Aunt was worse or had 
passed away. 

" I felt Mr. Duke would come this morning, but he did not." 
On the next day the lady records : " Mr. Duke came. I knew 
he was coming quite well, and hurried E. to get my room done. 
He said he wanted to come yesterday, but was too busy, he could 
not bring it in." 

" Mrs. T. B. several times in church this morning seemed as if 
she must get up and go out, and I willed most strongly she should 
not, and each time she half got up I looked hard at her and told 
her telepathically to sit down again, and she did." 

" This afternoon I telepathed to Mr. B. asking why he did not 
ask Mr. T. instead of Mr. S. for a solo for the P. S. A. Mr. B. 
came in the evening, and said in the afternoon he very suddenly 
thought of Mr. T. and went at once to ask him if he would sing, 
and he promised." 

" Mrs. B. promised her son H. should bring me some patterns 
from a shop in the town at dinner time, when he came out of 
school. He did not bring them, and again at tea-time they did 
not come, so I waited until half past five. Then I telepathed to 
her, * You are forgetting my patterns, and the light will soon be 
gone, so that I shall not be able to see them.' H. came with them 
at 10 minutes past 6 o'clock, and said his mother forgot them until 
half past 5, when she said, * Make haste or the light will be gone, 
and your auntie will not be able to see them.' When the rap came, 
I said, ' That is H. with the patterns.' " 

" Mr. Duke telepathed to me at half past eleven this morning 
that he should come in to see me in the afternoon, because it was 



INSTANCES OF TELEPATHY 85 

Good Friday. He came in as I thought, and said at half past 
eleven he made up his mind he would look in in the afternoon, 
because of its being Good Friday next day. " 

" I telepathed very strongly to Mrs. J. to come in to see me for 
a minute. I wanted to speak to her most particularly. She came, 
saying: 'I can only stay a minute." 

" Mr. Duke called this evening, and said last night I appeared 
to him three or four times, and he got quite vexed at me, because 
I kept waking hirn, but he did not seem to be able to get rid of me. 
The last time he saw me I was in bed, as if ill, my arm was above 
my head and I had on a turquoise blue jacket. This is very remark- 
able, because I always wear pink jackets, and had only the day 
before finished making myself a blue one, and tried it on to be sure 
it was all right. I need scarcely say Mr. Duke knew nothing what- 
ever of this." 

Mr. Duke confirms this incident in all respects, except that the 
lady did not '' appear " to him, as her word might imply a phantasm 
of her. 

But there are 164 such incidents and we need not quote further. 
I should note, however, that two of them are connected with sit- 
uations suggestive of something else than telepathy between the 
living. One of them is a premonition afterward fulfilled and the 
other a death coincidence. 

I next take an incident from the first volume of " Phantasms of 
the Living." It also involves a coincidence apparently without 
purpose. 

" ' Brantwood, Coniston, October 27, 1883. 

" ' I woke up with a start, feeling I had had a hard blow on my mouth, 
and with a distinct sense that I had been cut, and was bleeding under my 
upper lip, and seized my pocket handkerchief, and held it (in a little 
pushed lump) to the part, as I sat up in bed, and after a few seconds 
when I removed it, I was astonished not to see any blood, and only then 
reahzed it was impossible anything could have struck me there, as I lay 
fast asleep in bed, and so I thought it was only a dream ! — but I looked at 
my watch, and saw it was seven, and finding Arthur, (my husband) was 
not in the room, I concluded (rightly) that he must have gone out on the 
lake for an early sail, as it was so fine. 

"*I then fell asleep. At breakfast (half past nine), Arthur came in 
rather late, and I noticed he rather purposely sat farther away from me 
than usual, and every now and then put his pocket handkerchief furtively 



86 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

up to his lip, in the very way I had done. I said, " Arthur, why are you 
doing that?" and added a Httle anxiously, "I know you have hurt your- 
self ! but I'll tell you why afterwards. " He said, " Well, I was sailing, 
a sudden squall came, throwing the tiller suddenly around, and it struck me 
a bad blow in the mouth, under the upper lip, and it has been bleeding a 
good deal and won't stop. " I then said, " Have you any idea what o'clock 
it was when it happened ? " and he answered, " It must have been about 
seven." 

*' ' I then told what happened to me, much to his surprise, and all who 
were with us at breakfast It happened here about three years ago at 
Brantwood to me. 

" ' Joan R. Severn.' 

" In reply to inquiries Mrs. Severn writes : ' There was no doubt about 
my starting up in bed wide awake, as I stuffed my pocket handkerchief 
into my mouth, and held it pressed to my upper lip for some time before 
removing it " to see the blood," — and was much surprised that there was 
none. Some little time afterwards I fell asleep again. I believe that when 
I got up, an hour afterwards, the impression was still vividly in my mind, 
and that as I was dressing I did look under my lip to see if there was any 
mark." 

Another incident of a trivial sort is reported in the same volume 
by the Rev. P. H. Newnham, who has also reported many other 
coincidences. 

" ' January 26, 1885. 

" * In March, 1861, I was living at Houghton, Hants. My wife was at 
the time confined to the house, by delicacy of the lungs. One day, walking 
through a lane, I found the first wild violets of the spring, and took them 
home to her. 

" ' Early in April I was attacked with a dangerous illness ; and in June 
left the place. I never told my wife exactly where I found the violets, 
nor, for the reasons explained, did I ever walk with her past the place 
where they grew, for many years. 

" ' In November, 1873, we were staying with friends at Houghton ; and 
myself and wife took a walk up the lane in question. As we passed by 
the place, the recollection of those early violets of twelve and a half years 
ago flashed upon my mind. At the usual interval of some twenty or thirty 
seconds my wife remarked, " It 's very curious, but if it were not impos- 
sible, I should declare that I could smell violets in the hedge." 

" I had not spoken, nor made any gesture or movement of any kind, to 
indicate what I was thinking of. Neither had my memory called up the 
perfume. All that I thought of was the exact locality on the hedge bank, 
my memory being exceedingly minute for locality." 

" Mr. Newnham's residence at Houghton lasted only a few months, and 
with the help of a diary he can account for nearly every day's walking 
and work. " My impression is, " he says, " that this was the first and only 



INSTANCES OF TELEPATHY 87 

time that I explored this particular ' drive ' ; and I feel certain that Mrs. 
Newnham never saw the spot at all until November, 1873. The hedges 
had then been grubbed, and no violets grew there." 

" Mrs. Newnham confirms the story ; and, though it cannot be regarded as 
proof of telepathy, it, with other and more evidential experiences of Mr. 
and Mrs. Newnham, is of sufficient interest to justify investigation of the 
subject. 

" The next instance is interesting, as it might have coincided with death, 
had the person involved in it died at the time. The circumstances which 
give the incident its value will also have to be told. 

"'November, 1884. 

" ' When I was a child I had many remarkable experiences of a psychical 
nature, which I remember to have looked upon as ordinary and natural 
at the time. 

"'On one occasion (I am unable to fix the date, but I must have been 
about ten years old) I was walking in a country lane at A., the place 
where my parents then resided. I was reading geometry as I walked along, 
a subject little likely to produce fancies or morbid phenomena of any kind, * 
when, in a moment, I saw a bedroom known as the White Room in my 
home, and upon the floor lay my mother, to all appearance dead. The vision 
must have remained some minutes, during which time my real surround- 
ings seemed to pale and die out; but as the vision faded, actual surround- 
ings came back, at first dimly, and then clearly. 

" * I could not doubt that what I had seen was real, so, instead of going 
home, I went at once to the house of our medical man and found him at 
home. He at once set out with me for my home, on the way putting ques- 
tions I could not answer, as my mother was to all appearance well when 
I left home. 

" ' I led the doctor straight to the White Room, where we found my 
mother actually lying as in my vision. This was true even to minute de- 
tails. She had been seized suddenly by an attack at the heart, and would . 
soon have breathed her last but for the doctor's timely advent. I shall 
get my father and mother to read this and sign it. 

" ' Jeanie Gwynne Bettany.' " 

" The father and mother signed the document and then the lady herself 
in response to inquiries made the following important statements. 

" (i) I was in no anxiety about my mother at the time I saw the vision 
I described. 

" (2) Something a little similar had once occurred to my mother. She 
had been out riding alone, and the horse brought her to our door hanging 
half off his back, in a faint. This was a long time before, and she never 
rode again. Heart disease had set in. She was not in the habit of faint- 
ing unless an attack of the heart was upon her. Between the attacks she 
looked and acted as if in health. 

(3) The occasion I describe was, I believe, the only one on which I 
saw a scene transported apparently into the actual field of vision, to the 
exclusion of objects and surroundings actually present. 

" I have had other visions in which I have seen events happening as 



88 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

they really were, in another place, but I have been also conscious of real 
surroundings. 

" (4) No one could tell whether my vision preceded the fact or not. 
My mother was supposed to be out. No one knew anything of my mother's 
being ill, till I took the doctor and my father, whom I had encountered at 
the door, to the room where I found my mother as I had seen her in my 
vision. \ 

*' (5) The doctor is dead. He has no living relation. No one in A. 
knew anything of these circumstances. 

" (6) The White Room in which I saw nry mother, and afterwards 
actually found her, was out of use. It was unlikely she should be there. 
She was found lying in the attitude in which I had seen her. I found a 
handkerchief with a lace border beside her on the floor. This I had dis- 
tinctly noticed in my vision. There were other particulars of coincidence 
which I cannot put here. " 

Mrs. Bettany's father has given the following fuller account: — 

" I distinctly remember being surprised by seeing my daughter, in com- 
pany with the family doctor, outside the door of my residence ; and I asked 

* Who is ill ? ' She replied, ' Mamma. ' She led the way at once to the 

* White Room,' where we found my wife lying in a swoon on the floor. 
It was when I asked when she had been taken ill, that I found that it must 
have been after my daughter had left the house. None of the servants 
in the house knew anything of the sudden illness, which our doctor assured 
me would have been fatal had he not arrived when he did, My wife was 
quite well when I left her in the morning. 

" S. G. GWYNNE. " 

This incident is interesting: for we cannot suppose that the 
mother was the agent without assuming that she had subconsciously 
thought of her daughter, which she would be less likely to do than 
to think of her husband. It is a case so closely allied to those which 
purport to involve the intervention of the dead that it is well worth 
quoting here. 

I next take, from the " Proceedings " of the American Society 
for Psychical Research, an incident which was partly experimental, 
but which also represents a spontaneous coincidence. 

"January 15, 1907. 

" I sat down to read proofs a moment ago, and in the sentence, ' I had 
hoped by the article to begin the task of crystallizing,' the syllable ' izing ' 
beginning the next line, I read the word ' crystallizing ' as ' crystal gaz- 
ing ' twice, and being puzzled by its irrelevance I looked a third time 
and found that it was a most distinct illusion. I had a few minutes — per- 
haps ten or fifteen — before been occupied with the subject of classifying 
crystal visions. 

" Immediately I resolved to test my secretary and, taking the proofs 



INSTANCES OF TELEPATHY 89 

around to her, asked her to read the sentence aloud, without saying what 
I wanted. At the same time, I willed that she should say ' crystal gaz- 
ing ' instead of ' crystallizing,' which she did twice. As soon as it was 
over she told me that just a second or two before I asked her to read the 
sentence, she saw an apparition of a crystal and thought of crystal gazing 
several times. She could not have seen or known what I was thinking 
about. 

" James H. Hyslop." 

Another instance shows the caprice and spontaneity that justifies 
classification with spontaneous cases. 

" Brooklyn, N. Y., January i, 1907. 
" Dr. James H. Hyslop. 

" Dear Sir : I send the following instance of telepathy as a very satis- 
factory demonstration. 

" Mr. C. C. Rodgers went out to make a purchase for me. He ran 
quickly down from the third floor and I heard the front door close. At 
once there flashed into my consciousness, * Go to my gray trousers.' The 
message seemed to carry its own impulse. I obeyed without hesitation, 
surprise or thought of its meaning. I walked to the wardrobe and my 
hand at once touched the bunch of keys in one of the pockets. Then I 
knew. I put my hand in the pocket, got the keys, went to the front window 
and waited his return. When he came in the gate I threw the keys down 
to him. , He let himself in at the front door and came bounding up the 
stairs. * You got my message,' he exclaimed. ' When I realized I had 
forgotten my keys, I sent you a message to go to my gray trousers and 
throw them down to me.' No comment can make this stronger. 

" Frederika Cantwell.''^ 

The gentleman confirms the story. I quote another incident 
from the same source. It was reported by Professor H. Norman 
Gardiner, of Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. 

'' May 6, 1909. 

" My father and brother are ardent hunters, yoii should know. Recently 
my brother trapped a muskrat, which quite oddly was alive when he got to 
the trap. At this season they usually drown very soon after being caught. 
My brother was alone and my father did not know where he had been. All 
he knew was the fact of his finding a muskrat alive in his trap and killing 
him. I established this fact by careful inquiry of both of them. 

" The next morning father said that he had dreamed the night before 
that he was trapping muskrat, and that when he got to one trap it had a 
live rat in it. (So far the dream was merely the reproduction of what he 
had been told.) But he went on to say that the rat was some distance 
from the shore, and that he hunted around and found a very long bean- 
pole and with that dispatched the rat. Then Walter said : ' I killed mine 



90 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

with a bean-pole.' ' Mine was sharpened at the end/ said my father. 
* And' so was mine,' said my brother. 

" It will not occur to you how odd that was, because it is unlikely that 
you ever hunted muskrats much. If you had, one of the last images which 
you would call up would be cultivated fields and gardens. I asked Walter 
if he had told any one about using the bean-pole, and he said he had not. 
I then asked father if he ever in his life had done the same thing or in any 
way connected muskrats and bean gardens, and he could recall nothing to 
bring up the dream. 

" It seems to be thought transference. In our family this is not strange 
My brother, sister and I all agree that we all of us, to some extent, read 
father's mind. "(Mrs.) F . " 

These suffice to illustrate spontaneous incidents which occur by 
the thousand. They may not have scientific cogency, but they sug- 
gest the need of experiment to decide the matter. There is not the 
slightest superficial indication of anything more than some connec- 
tion between living minds in these phenomena; if they are super- 
normal, they do not suggest any third party as a link in the series. 
We turn to the next type. 

The occurrence of spontaneous cases suggested experiment for 
deciding the question. In the other sciences, if experiment was 
possible, it was not necessary to depend upon spontaneous phe- 
nomena for proof. Experiments were tried with apparent success. 
Illustrations are in order. 

I myself on one occasion made an experiment of some interest. 
I was investigating a professional claimant of telepathic powers, 
and was not satisfied with his performance, as it showed distinct 
evidences of the signal code and other methods of the conjurer. 
At last I selected a young man from those whom I had invited to 
witness the evening's experiment. He was an absolute stranger 
to the man whom I was investigating and came with another guest 
of mine. I blindfolded the young man and superintended the ex- 
perimen«ts myself. The young man sat about four feet in front 
of me, and I stood up with a writing pad in my hand in such a posi- 
tion that he could not see it. 

I first drew a triangle with a circle in it, while we remained 
quiet. No word or signal was uttered. In a few moments the 
young man got a triangle with a circle in it. I then drew a circle 
with a triangle in it and in the triangle a plus mark or cross. In a 



INSTANCES OF TELEPATHY 91 

few moments the young man got two sides of the triangle and the 
cross inside them. I then drew a pig and he soon got " a goat 
or a pig. " This ended the experiment, I am sure thaft there was 
no collusion nor possible fraud. 

In a series of experiments some years later I obtained interesting 
results of another kind. The subject was unable to reproduce 
drawings or to get words or ideas simply thought by the agent, but 
could find objects and put them in places intended by the agents. 
In other words, she could carry out motor impulses apparently 
suggested by telepathy. The thought to be conveyed to her was 
written down in a book and read silently by the persons acting as 
agents, while the lady was in another room at some distance. She 
was later admitted to the room for the experiment. Two stood 
behind her and touched hands, but did not touch the subject or 
percipient. The percipient stood a moment with eyes downcast, 
then went to the object thought of, picked it up, and put it in the 
intended spot. This performance was successfully repeated so 
often as to exclude explanation by chance, and only those who did 
not witness the phenomena could offer to explain them as the 
results of unconscious suggestions. 

For instance, in one experiment it was willed that the subject 
should get a pocketbook out of a vase ten feet distant, and put it 
on the bookcase in another room. She promptly went to the 
vase and got the pocketbook, and on the second trial put it on the 
bookcase intended. In another experiment she was to get the 
keys which I had concealed in the sofa in the reception room, and 
put them on the piano. Both actions were promptly performed 
on the first trial. One hundred twenty-four similar experiments, 
most of them quite as complex as the examples mentioned, were 
performed with a success that strongly suggested supernormal 
knowledge. The results were published in the '' Proceedings " of 
the American Society. They are the only results that I was ever 
able personally to obtain in support of any kind of telepathy. . 

Mr. Malcolm Guthrie and Mr. Birchall, members of the Liver- 
pool Literary and Philosophical Society, published some good 
results in the English '' Proceedings." ^ I can choose only a few 
1 •' Proceedings," English S. P. R., Vol. I, p. 263. 



92 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

illustrations from a very lengthy report. The operators and sub- 
jects of experiment were people in private life, and no professional 
interests were involved. In some of the experiments contact be- 
tween the agent and the percipient was allowed, but in many of 
them this contact was not permitted, so that ordinary muscle-read- 
ing was excluded. The nature of the objects chosen, however, and 
the promptness of the answers, in the cases where contact was per- 
mitted, show conclusively that contact did not affect results. I shall 
choose some instances from the cases in which contact was not 
permitted. 

The agent thought of a half crown; the percipient stated her im- 
pression : " Like a flat bottom — bright ... no particular color." 
In the second experiment the four of spades was in the mind of 
the agent ; the answer given was : ''A card . . . four of clubs." 
She said afterwards that she did not know the difference between 
spades and clubs. In the third experiment the agent thought of an 
egg; the percipient said: *' Looks remarkably like an tgg'^ In the 
fourth a penholder with thimble inverted on the end was the object 
thought of and the answer was : ' A column, with something bell- 
shaped turned down on it." In the fifth experiment the agent 
thought of a small gold ear-ring; the percipient answered: " Round 
and bright . . . yellow . . . with loop to hang it by." 

In a set of experiments in which contact was allowed, out of 
four attempts only one was successful — a result which tends to 
show that contact was not a condition of success. In another set 
of four experiments without contact the following were the re- 
sults : In the first experiment, Object: A gold cross. Result: 
*' It is yellow ... it is a cross." In the second experiment, Ob- 
ject: A red ivory chess knight. Result: "It is red . . . broad 
at the bottom . . . then very narrow . . . then broad again at 
the top ... it is a chessman." Asked to name the piece, per- 
cipient said she did not know the names of the pieces. In the third 
experiment. Object: A half crown held up by Mr. B., taken out 
of his pocket after he had placed the percipient with face to the 
wall and away from the agent. Residt: " It is round . . . bright 
... no particular color . . . silver ... it is a piece of money 
. . . larger than a shilling, but not as large as ... " The per- 



INSTANCES OF TELEPATHY 93 

cipient was unable to say more. In the fourth experiment, Object : 
A diamond of pink silk on black satin. Result: " Light pink 
. . . cannot make out the shape . . . seems moving about." 
The object was held somewhat unsteadily by Mr. G. In both these 
sets of experiments the successes certainly cannot be explained as 
chance. 

There is no superficial evidence of spirits in these instances of 
telepathy. We may suspend judgment as to the explanation of 
them, but we cannot quote them in proof either of the existence of 
spirits or of their influence to produce the effects. For aught that 
we know, spirits may be instrumental in producing them; but the 
phenomena themselves bear no testimony to that effect. 

Professor Barrett, now Sir William F. Barrett, reported a series 
of experiments for telepathy under good conditions, of which the 
illustrations appended explain themselves. The experiments were 
made without contact and represent drawings by the agent repro- 
duced by the percipient. {" Proceedings," English S. P. R., Vol. 
II, pp. 207-215.) 

I now come to a type of phenomenon in which a living person 
appears to another, when one of them is thinking of the other or 
even trying to impress him with the sense of his presence. I shall 
quote only a few cases in illustration. I take the first incident from 
Mr. Podmore's " Apparitions and Thought-Transference." 

Rev. Clarence Godfrey resolved to make himself appear to a 
friend. Without acquainting his friend with his intention, he 
determined before going to sleep to " translate " himself ** spir- 
itually " into her room so that he could be seen. This effort was 
sustained for about eight minutes; he then went to sleep, but was 
awakened at about 3 140 a. m. with some consciousness of her pres- 
ence. This was on November 15. 

On the next day, November 16, he received an account from 
the lady, telling her experience, saying that at about 3 130 a. m. she 
had awakened with a start and had seen Mr. Godfrey standing near 
the window on the staircase. He had vanished in three or four 
seconds. 

Mr. Godfrey tried a similar experiment a second time and 
succeeded. Herr Weserman, an official in the German Government, 



94 CONTACT WrfH THE OTHER WORLD 

tried the experiment frequently with marked success. Dr. Funk 
reported to me a case which I investigated and recorded. 

A lady who had been reading Hudson's book on psychic phe- 
nomena learned from it that she might be able to make herself 
appear to another; she resolved to try the experiment on her hus- 
band. She was at Derby, Connecticut, at the time of the experi- 
ment, and her husband was away on business. She did not know 
where he was, but thought he might be in New York, Schenectady, 
Syracuse or Buffalo. She went to sleep in Derby willing that she 
should appear to her husband, wake him, and kiss him on the fore- 
head. On that night he awakened at about one o'clock and saw his 
wife standing at the foot of his bed. He asked what she was doing 
there, whereupon she walked round and kissed him on the 
forehead. 

There are numerous spontaneous cases of the kind, more or less 
well authenticated, which the skeptical are the more ready to accept 
because they afford a refuge from the spiritistic hypothesis. They 
require as much authentication as other types of apparition, and, 
as they are less numerous than those of the dying and the dead, they 
are not as cogent evidence for the supernormal, though, when 
proved, they afford support for telepathy. I have sufficiently illus- 
trated the type, which supports the definition of telepathy as a coin- 
cidence between the mental states of two living persons. They do 
not suggest spiritistic interpretations of any kind. 

We come next to a type of phenomena which have been classi- 
fied under telepathy because they do not, superficially at least, 
serve as evidence of discarnate spirits. 

The two volumes on " Phantasms of the Living," most of which 
are in fact apparitions of the dying, and the " Census of Hallucina- 
tions," Volume X of the English "Proceedings," include hundreds 
of cases of this type. They are usually appearances of a dying 
person at the time of death or very near it. Everyone must con- 
cede that the circumstances cannot be explained as chance coinci- 
dence. Let me abbreviate two instances, which I quote from the 
" Census of Hallucinations." 

" TiCKHILL, YORKS, JunC 12, 189I. 

*' An aunt of mine, who died in England last November, 1890, appeared 



INSTANCES OF TELEPATHY 95 

■) 

before me in Australia, and I knew before I received the letter of her 
death that she was dead. I took a note of it at the time and found on 
comparing notes that she appeared to me the day she died — date Novem- 
ber 17th, 1890. " 

The next instance is also of interest because of the distance be- 
tween those concerned. 

" September, 1893. 

" At the end of August of the year 1882, my father, mother, and sisters 
left home for our usual summer holiday. At the same time a young man 
whom we knew quite slightly (although he was our neighbor) started to 
Texas to learn farming, for which I felt sorry, because I was looking 
forward to paint well enough by my return to ask him to sit for the prin- 
cipal figure in a picture I was longing to do. 

" We went to a cottage in Gloucestershire, where my sister and I shared 
the same room. About the fourteenth of September, 1882, my sister and 
I felt worried and distressed by hearing the death watch ; it lasted a 
whole day and night. We got up earlier than usual the next morning, about 
six o'clock, to finish some birthday presents for our mother. As my 
sister and I were working and talking together, I looked up, and saw our 
young acquaintance standing in front of me and looking at us. I turned 
to my sister, she saw nothing; I looked again to where he stood, he had 
vanished. We agreed not to tell any one — and, although I wished to put 
it down in my diary (which I had not kept for some time), I was afraid 
to do so ; I therefore made marks to remind myself. 

" Some time afterwards we heard that our young acquaintance had 
either committed suicide or had been killed; he was found dead in the 
woods twenty-four hours after landing. 

" On looking back to my diary, I found that my marks corresponded to 
the date of his death. " 

These two typical instances have been chosen because the circum- 
stances make it difficult to account for them by any previous knowl- 
edge on the part of the percipient. The main point is, that the 
writers of the reports of these phenomena explain them by telepathy, 
with the idea that this explanation excludes the possibility of the 
action of spirits. The impression is always left that the incidents 
are evidence of telepathy between the living, which in reality they 
are not. They are in no respect evidence for telepathy so defined. 
Some of the recorded instances show that the dying person was 
thinking of the percipient at the time, but the majority of them 
exhibit no such fact ; that such thought was present cannot be con- 
jectured as probable, and then used as evidence. The possibility is 
sometimes emphasized that the range of telepathy may be extended 



96 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

so far as to shut out the appeal to such cases as evidence for the 
action of discarnate spirits. I quite agree that they cannot be used 
as evidence for the existence and action of spirits; but neither can 
they be quoted as evidence for telepathy of the type that excludes 
the action of spirits. The fact that the coincidence occurs more 
frequently in connection with dying than with living persons tends 
to show that death has something to do with causing the phe- 
nomena; and, though we may not be justified in invoking spirits 
to account for the facts, it is quite as legitimate to explain the 
phenomena by regarding the dying person as a free spirit at the 
time as by regarding him as a telepathic agent. In other words, 
the cases are not evidence on either side of the controversy. They 
are border-land phenomena explicable by either hypothesis and evi- 
dence of neither. 

This last statement, however, is dependent on the narrow mean- 
ing of the term telepathy. In the use of it as a rival hypothesis to 
that of spirit agencies, the term implies a limitation to coincidences 
between living people and so assumes nothing about a similar pro- 
cess between the dead and the living. 

The only argument for telepathy in apparitions of the dying is 
the presumption that the consciousness of the dying person is not 
yet dissociated from the body. There are affiliations between such 
phenomena and two other types, which are more clearly indicative 
of the existence of the discarnate: visions appearing to the dying, 
and apparitions of the dead. Neither of these types is evidence 
for telepathy, in any sense determined by experimental and spon- 
taneous coincidences and apparitions of the dying. They represent 
apparent communication with the dead, and, at least to some extent, 
are evidence of it. Visions that represent apparitions of the dead, 
appearing to the dying, lack all the conditions for evidence of telep- 
athy between the living, though connected with those in articulo 
mortis conditions associated with the apparition of the dying to the 
living. They are in fact a border-land type of apparitions of the 
dead, just as apparitions of the dying are the border-land phenom- 
ena between telepathy with the living and telepathy with the dead. 

I need not illustrate phantasms of the dead or visions of the dying 
in this connection. It is quite apparent that neither of them can be 



EXPERIMENTS IN TELEPATHY 



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INSTANCES OF TELEPATHY 97 

explained by telepathy between the living, except by stretching the 
meaning of the term beyond the evidence. If apparitions of the 
dead and visions of the dying are evidence of a telepathic process 
between the dead and the living, and so to that extent serve as evi- 
dence for the existence of spirits, the hypothesis of telepathy is 
abandoned, not as a fact but as an alternative to the spiritistic hy- 
pothesis. It may name a process of unknown nature, common to 
both incarnate and discarnate minds. I have no objections to such 
an employment of the term, but it nullifies the popular antithesis 
between telepathy and spiritism. It even involves the possibility 
that spirits may furnish the explanation of telepathy between the 
living. Mr. Myers saw this implication at the very outset of the 
investigations into telepathy. He perceived that any transcendental 
process of communication between the living involved such inde- 
pendence of normal sensory processes as to render the isolation of 
consciousness easily conceivable; the next step would be to regard 
telepathy as the manner of communication, at least in certain types 
of phenomena. 

If the dead as well as the living may be telepathic agents, posi- 
tive evidence alone is needed to show that discarnate spirits may 
intervene in telepathy between the living. In an address before 
the English Society, Professor Gilbert Murray, in order to suggest 
some known physiological or psychological condition that would 
make telepathy possible, proposed that telepathy between the living 
might be due to hyperaesthesia. But such an explanation would ab- 
surdly extend the limits of hyperaesthesia. We cannot apply tactual 
hyperaesthesia to perception at a distance of ten feet, nor visual hy- 
peraesthesia to perception of a crow a thousand miles away. Nearly 
all the phenomena which believers in telepathy regard as evi- 
dence for the process are not explainable as hyperaesthesia. 

It is evident that not all the phenomena outside of experimental 
and spontaneous coincidences between living people can be adduced 
as evidence for telepathy. They are at least open to other explana- 
tions. Telepathy itself explains nothing; it has no office beyond 
that of description and classification. So far as we know, the 
activity of spirits might explain telepathy itself, though for this ex- 
planation we should have to adduce evidence. Much will depend on 



98 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

the positive evidence for the existence of spirits. This evidence is 
confined to phenomena indicating the continued personal identity of 
the dead; so long as we limit the evidence for discarnate action to 
this type of occurrence, we cannot make the hypothesis of spirits 
explain either coincidences between the living, or any other phe- 
nomena not indicative of discarnate memory. 

But if we once have sufficient evidence for the existence of spirits 
and also find evidence of their intervention in human affairs in phe- 
nomena that cannot possibly be explicable by telepathy, we may 
have reason to consider their intervention probable in the ordinary 
cases of telepathy. There is on record much evidence of this in- 
tervention; further evidence may show that intervention extends 
to the coincidences which have passed as telepathy between the 
living, which in the first stage of the investigation could not be 
considered direct evidence of discarnate intelligence. 

In the experiments between Miss Miles and Miss Ramsden,^ pub- 
lished as evidence for telepathy between the living, there were indi- 
cations that the telepathy was effected by the intervention of the 
dead, or at least involved conditions associating the dead with the 
result. These indications were not apparent in the account of the 
facts published by the English Society. Nothing was there said 
about some other types of phenomena in which the agent and the 
percipient were concerned. Certain circumstances connected with 
the report of the results seemed unusual in telepathy between the 
living alone. I made inquiry of the ladies and found that only 
part of the story had been told. Miss Miles was an all-round 
psychic. She had had experiences in automatic writing, apparent 
telekinesis or the movement of objects without contact, appari- 
tions, and dousing both by clairvoyance and by the use of the divin- 
ing-rod. In addition she let drop in her correspondence with me, 
that she could always tell when her telepathy was successful hy the 
raps that she heard. That is, she persisted in thinking of the object 
which M'iss Ramsden was to perceive until she heard raps; she 
could then safely regard the experiment as a success. Now raps 
are not telepathic phenomena, but have altogether another associa- 
tion. These complications of the phenomena told decidedly against 
1 '' Proceedings," English S. P. R., Vol. XXI, pp. 60-93. 



■^ 



INSTANCES OF TELEPATHY 99 

telepathy between the hving alone as an explanation, and the asso- 
ciation or intervention of spirits had to be regarded as possible. 

A paper read before the French Society narrated an experimental 
incident of some importance. It was translated for the " Journal " 
of the American Society for Psychical Research by Madame de 
Montalvo and published in Volume VIII (pp. 413-446). The in- 
cident of interest here is the following. 

The gentleman who reported the circumstance had two subjects 
with whom he experimented. One of them went to the sea-shore 
without the knowledge of the other, and was spending some time 
there. Dr. Geley, the experimenter, was with the other in Paris, 
and tried clairvoyance one evening to ascertain if the subject in 
Paris could see the surroundings of the one at the sea-shore. He 
succeeded in getting descriptions of scenes and objects which he 
afterward verified. But accompanying his usual experiments with 
the lady were two visible lights. On this occasion there was but 
one light, which disappeared when the clairvoyance ceased. Now 
lights often develop into apparitions; at any rate, this association 
of lights with clairvoyance or telepathic phenomena is partial evi- 
dence for the intervention of spirits in them. ( 

In communications through Mrs. Smead, the wife of an ortho- 
dox clergyman, Mr. Podmore, purporting to communicate, said 
that telepathy was always a message carried by spirits and that 
they could do it instantly. Mrs. Smead knew little of Mr. Pod- 
more; there was no reason for her subconsciously putting this 
statement into the mouth of Mr. Podmore. He had always pressed 
telepathy between the living to explain all alleged spiritistic phe- 
nomena. Though it was not a proof of his identity to have this 
reversal of his opinion, it was not a natural view for Mrs. Smead 
to assign to him. 

Apparently Mr. Myers took the same view of telepathy, as 
always involving the intervention of the discarnate. While my 
publication of the Miles-Ramsden experiments was going through 
the press, Mr. Myers purported to communicate through Mrs. Chen- 
oweth, making a spontaneous allusion to telepathy and remarking 
that " it all depended on the carrier." Not wishing to mistake 
the meaning of this remark, I inquired what was meant by " the 



loo CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

carrier " ; and the answer was : " Telepathy is always a message 
carried by spirits." 

Still better indications of spiritistic intervention in telepathy 
were given in communications from Mrs. Verrall soon after her 
death. She had believed when living that most of the incidents in 
the record of Mrs. Piper and in her own mediumship were explica- 
ble by telepathy between the living, and based her belief in spirits 
only on a few incidents which she thought could not be so explained. 
Mrs. Verrall died in July, 191 6. In the following September she 
purported to communicate through Mrs. Chenoweth, who knew 
only that such a person had existed and had done automatic writ- 
ing, and on the occasion of her first communications made an ob- 
scure reference to telepathy. The next day she spontaneously 
brought up the subject again, and said it was too early in her efforts 
to make clear her views on it. On the day following she again 
spontaneously referred to it in the following manner. 

" I said yesterday that I would write more about the telepathic theory 
as I now understand it. I am not as sure of the passage of thought through 
space as I was once, and I had begun to question the method by which 
thought was transferred to brains before I came here, but you will recall 
that I had some striking instances of what seemed telepathy tapping a 
reservoir of thought direct, and the necessity for an intervening spirit 
was uncalled for; but there were other instances when the message was 
transposed or translated and the interposition of another mind was un- 
questionably true. I tried many experiments and I think you must know 
about them. 

" I will say that I found more people involved in my work than I had 
known and there seemed more reason to believe that I was operated upon 
than that I operated — in other words, the automatic writing was less mine 
than I had supposed." 

At the next sitting, a few days later, she again alluded to the 
process, and, speaking of having thought of it when living as a 
possible possession of all persons, significantly added : — 

" I am not yet convinced that this is my error, but I do know that we are 
companioned and aided by those who know the methods of the transference 
of thought." 

Referring to the subject later, when mentioning a case that she 
had known before her death but that Mrs. Chenoweth did not know, 



INSTANCES OF TELEPATHY loi 

a case of suddenly induced anaesthesia during an apparently nor- 
mal state, she said : — 

*' It may be that these cases of anaesthesia were produced by contact with 
superior intelHgence. That I am now investigating on this side. While 
one may not be conscious of such state of anaesthesia, it may still exist; 
and, if this be true, the spirit mediation theory is possible, even in these 
extreme cases where it seemed as if telepathy were proven beyond a 
doubt. " 

On the whole these statements are rather evidential, though other 
minds than her own may have contributed to the formal embodi- 
ment of the thought. But the statements distinctly affirm the 
possibility of the intervention of spirits in every form of telepathy. 
If that be conceded, we should explain away telepathy by spirits, 
rather than spirits by telepathy as the popular skepticism 
would do. 

Since I wrote this work and while it is going through the press, 
I have been experimenting, by cross reference, with two cases where 
" telepathy " and the " malicious animal magnetism " of Christian 
Science would be the assumed explanation, and I have obtained 
evidence of spiritistic intervention in the phenomena. 

We may revert to apparitions as corroborating such a view. I 
do not mean that all apparitions superficially indicate it; but there 
are instances too complicated to be explicable by the orthodox 
theory of telepathy. Some of the apparitions are premonitory of 
coming events, or indicative of approaching death; and premoni- 
tions are not telepathic. But even when not premonitory, many of 
them — for example, visions of the dying and apparitions of the 
dead — suggest the intervention of the dead as their most natural 
explanation. Some of them show complications too teleological for 
telepathy, which shows no evidence of purpose. For instance, I 
know^ of a subject who frequently had premonitions of coming 
deaths in the family. On one occasion she saw an apparition of 
her deceased sister, but immediately afterward she saw an appari- 
tion of her living aunt; in a few days her aunt died. The sister 
was apparently endeavoring to forewarn the subject of coming 
events. In another case, a lady saw an apparition of her living 
husband, but felt the presence of her deceased father; her husband 



102 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

died a few days later. On another occasion some months later 
the same subject saw an apparition of a heavy man walk through 
her door and fall down from drunkenness. At first she thought 
it was her father; but she later saw that it was the renter of her 
houses, who afterwards became the cause of her losing the income 
on which she lived. Her father came apparently to forecast some 
misfortune. The point is, that the apparitions of the living in these 
instances were caused by the dead. 

The very nature of apparitions suggests an identity in this char- 
acter that demands a single explanation. If the three classes 
require the same general explanation, that explanation must to some 
extent include the discarnate. Apparitions of the dead cannot be 
explained by telepathy between the living; even some apparitions 
of the living cannot easily be explained by telepathy without invok- 
ing the intervention of the dead. We may therefore be obliged 
to invoke the intervention of the discarnate to explain the three 
types of phenomena whose unity is indicated by their character- 
istics. 

But I am not prepared strenuously to defend any such thesis. 
We have not the evidence to assert that all telepathic coincidences 
are due to the intervention of spirits. Nor indeed is it either neces- 
sary or desirable that we should insist on this point in our defence 
of a spiritistic theory. We could hardly expect supernormal phe- 
nomena to be limited to the intervention of the dead. Some 
supernormal phenomena might happen between the living alone. It 
is enough to extort the admission that telepathy may be the name 
for a process which is sometimes incarnate and sometimes dis- 
carnate. If we have souls, occasional instances of transcendental 
connection between the living would be likely' to happen. Telepa- 
thy as a connection between minds without the intervention of 
sense-perception makes the existence of a soul so probable that we 
may well consider many instances of the supernormal as due to 
its activity in this life; on the other hand, we may connect dis- 
carnate spirits with many other phenomena than the intercommuni- 
cation between two worlds. 

The lesson to be learned from the fact of telepathy, though no 
explanation of it has been found, is that normal sense-perception 



INSTANCES OF TELEPATHY 103 

is not our only source of knowledge. Materialism must stand or 
fall with the evidence for the Hmitation of knowledge to sense- 
perception; and telepathy, if it applies to information acquired at 
great distances, is a complete refutation of that theory. If we do 
not accept the large body of evidence for the existence of spirits, 
we are obliged to substitute for that view the theory of telepathy, 
which is in itself a guarantee of a transcendental world of some 
kind, since it implies that the brain is not the sole condition of 
consciousness. 



CHAPTER X 
THE PROCESS OF COMMUNICATING 

THE popular terms for the method of communicating with 
the dead are automatic writing, raps, table-tipping, planch- 
ette writing, spelling by the ouija board, impressions, and 
the more technical terms of clairvoyance and clairaudience. All 
but the last two take their names from the physical instruments or 
the physical means employed in the work. The last two are names 
for peculiar phenomena in vision and hearing, which will be more 
fully described a little later. 

Automatic writing is distinguished from ordinary writing only 
in being unconscious or involuntary. Only certain tests, such as 
trance or anaesthesia, or the testimony of a trustworthy subject, 
will decide whether a person is writing automatically. Many peo- 
ple suppose that automatic writing is always the act of some foreign 
intelligence, but it is not necessarily so. It may always be the un- 
conscious act of the subject himself, even though we suppose that the 
instigating cause is foreign. Popularly, however, it is assumed to 
be due to the direct action of spirits, and even some scientific men 
maintain that, if spirits are connected with it at all, they are the 
direct cause of it. The matter, however, is not so simple as it 
seems, as we shall have occasion to see later. The factor that 
makes it appear to be the direct act of foreign intelligence is the 
exclusion of normal consciousness and intention. We naturally 
assume that anything not done by ourselves voluntarily is not 
done by ourselves at all, and if our ego were defined by our con- 
scious and voluntary acts, as the Cartesian philosophy would have 
us believe, this view would be correct. But since the time of Des- 
cartes we have learned that there is a whole territory of unconscious 
actions instigated, at least apparently, by unconscious processes of 
the mind. These acts may not be due to spirits at all. The sub- 
conscious is presumed to lie between the fields of spirit agency and 

104 



THE PROCESS OF COMMUNICATING 105 

the normally conscious and voluntary actions of the mind. Whether 
in this region mental states and acts may be originated with- 
out foreign stimulus is debatable, but in the absence of evidence for 
this instigation we have to assume that subconscious acts explain 
the facts, especially when the knowledge manifested or action per- 
formed is entirely within the range of normal acquisition. But if 
information not normally acquired is conveyed by this automatic 
writing the subconscious certainly cannot be more than the vehicle 
or medium of its transmission. It is this foreign origin that gives 
the impression of direct control by spirits and so leads to the sup- 
posed significance of automatic writing. 

But the psychic researcher is interested in automatic writing 
primarily as a supernormal phenomenon, whatever the source of 
the information conveyed by it. The process is probably very 
complex, as even normal writing is; but it involves at least one 
more factor than normal writing — that the stimulus to it may be not 
internal but external to the organism. Whenever it is connected 
with supernormal knowledge, we have to invoke foreign agency 
as at least one factor in the explanation. What goes on between 
the original impulse from foreign intelligence and the final act of 
writing we may not know any more than we know what goes on 
between the initial volition to write and the actual motion of the 
muscles of the hand. 

The methods of table-tipping, the planchette and the ouija board 
are only modifications of automatic writing. Many people sup- 
pose that there is some mystery or virtue about the ouija, which 
enables it to spell out messages from other minds. They do not 
reflect that the same process is involved in all the methods named. 
The muscular system of the operators is in action in each of them 
in the same way. The instrument or means of expression has noth- 
ing to do with the result, when the human organism must inter- 
vene in the phenomena. There is no mysterious power in the 
ouija, the planchette, or the table, any more than there is in the 
pencil. They are all agents or media, as they are in normal action 
of the same kind. The actual evidence for the supernormal lies, 
not in the action of automatic writing, of the ouija or planchette, 
or of the table, but in the contents of the message. If the content 



io6 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

represents normally acquired information, we explain the message 
by subconscious action of the writer's mind. If the content is un- 
mistakably foreign to normal experience, we seek for the external 
stimulus or mind that may account for it. The method of delivery 
is of secondary importance. 

Another method of communication is by raps. They are not 
always connected with the motor action of the psychic. No doubt 
some raps are simply ordinary automatisms like automatic writing 
and other unconscious actions. But they are often independent 
of any intervention by the human organism as revealed to sense- 
perception. They are used as signals of answers to questions; 
and, being foreign to either conscious or unconscious action of the 
organism, another explanation must be sought for them than for 
automatic writing. The latter assumes at least the intervention 
of the physical organism with its powers and habits. But raps may 
involve no such intermediary ; and in this case they must be regarded 
as independent physical phenomena. They can be used only for 
answers to questions or for spelling out words in various ways. 
Their method of communication is crude, in the sense that it takes 
time and trouble to get intelligible messages; but they signify the 
possibility of communication with an outside world without the 
mediation of the subconscious or normal machinery of the human 
organism. 

Clairvoyance and clairaudience are very different processes. 
Clairaudience is the hearing of apparently foreign messages, by 
means of voices, usually " internal voices. " Possibly they are 
sometimes apparently external, but since those who experience the 
facts are not always adept in analyzing and describing the ex- 
periences, we are not sure that the experiences are other than sub- 
jective or hallucinatory, though the stimulus may be foreign. Both 
clairaudience and clairvoyance are sensory phenomena, unconnected 
with motor action, whereas automatic writing and other forms of 
communication, except independent raps, are connected with the 
motor functions. 

Clairvoyance, however, is a term that does duty for three dis- 
tinct types of phenomena, (i) It denotes generally the power 
of mediumship in so far as the messages are obtained by impres- 



THE PROCESS OF COMMUNICATING 107 

sions or visual pictures. It is even very often used to denote any 
type of communication with the dead, and so is made synonymous 
with mediumship, excluding purely physical phenomena. (2) It 
is more technically used to denote the acquisition of foreign infor- 
mation through visual phantasms, as clairaudience is used to denote 
auditory hallucinations of the veridical type. (3) Lastly, still 
more technically, it denotes the perception of concealed physical 
objects whose whereabouts are not known by any living being. It 
represents the visual perception, transcendental in nature, of facts 
or things that cannot be known through telepathy. It presupposes 
supernormal perception at a distance, and excludes all mind-reading. 
This is the more technical conception of the process. Telsesthesia 
is probably a better term for this conception of clairvoyance. 

There is another popular conception of communication with the 
dead, which gives rise to the errors regarding the physical means 
of communication. This popular notion is that the communica- 
tion is quite like our own communication with each other. The cir- 
cumstance that it comes in speech or writing or some use of the 
physical organism creates the impression that the process is a 
mere substitution of the discarnate spirit for our own in the use 
of the human organism. This is not true, despite the appearances 
to that effect. Superficial characteristics make it appear as if a 
spirit simply took hold of the physical organism and used it just 
as the living personality uses it. On the contrary, the subconscious 
does not cease to function; and, when the normal consciousness is 
made the vehicle of the communications, no part of living control 
is lost. The popular misconception leads to the interpretation of 
messages as if they were not colored by the mind which serves as 
the medium of transmission, an assumption which is provably false. 
There is nothing clearer to investigators than the fact that all 
messages are affected by the mind of the medium, normal or sublim- 
inal, according to the conditions under which communication takes 
place. If the messages come through normal consciousness, the 
form of the message will be deeply affected. Memories, interpreta- 
tion, and language determine the form of the message. To some 
extent the subconscious will affect it in the same way in a trance, 
when normal consciousness is suspended. Control of the living 



io8 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

organism is either indirect or totally wanting when the communica- 
tions are going on, except possibly in exceptional cases of posses- 
sion, such as the " Watseka Wonder." (See Myer's "Human 
Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death," Volume I, pp. 360- 
368.) In most cases at least the influence of the living mind on 
the results is such that it gives rise in the scientific mind to doubts 
about actual spirit communication, but only because it has borrowed 
from the popular mind a preconception of what communication 
would be if it took place at all — namely; that the communication 
would be direct and like normal intercourse with the living. 

Normal communication among the living is a species of mimicry. 
This mimicry is not apparent in language; but when language can- 
not be employed, we quickly resort to some form of symbolism 
that is a modification of mimicry. In this way we instigate more 
or less the same thoughts in others as in ourselves ; but we do not 
communicate or transmit thoughts. We transmit only mechanical 
effects from one organism to another, and the mind connected with 
that organism interprets the effect in accordance with its own ex- 
perience in sense-perception. 

The external and superficial characteristics of the phenomena 
purporting to be communications from the dead, especially auto- 
matic writing and automatic speech, very strongly suggest the same 
process ; and, as the popular mind assumes that thoughts and ideas 
are actually transmitted from one person to another, it very nat- 
urally supposes that communication with the dead is direct trans- 
mission of ideas. But careful examination of the facts makes it 
quite clear that there is a radical difference, despite the resemblances 
between spiritistic and normal communication. The fact that no 
thoughts are directly transmitted between the living, unless we ad- 
mit telepathy as an exception, gives us pause in our assumptions 
about the process, and further examination reveals complications 
that show the process to be wholly different from normal inter- 
course. 

We can describe certain steps in the process of normal inter- 
course or conveyance of ideas. There is first the idea in the mind, 
which will usually take the form of a mental picture or a series of 
pictures. Next, there is the volition to express the idea in words. 



THE PROCESS OF COMMUNICATING 109 

The word is recalled and the vocal organs are moved to convert it 
into physical sound. There are no doubt intermediate stages be- 
tween the thought and the vocal expression ; but what goes on in the 
nerve filaments connecting the brain centers with the vocal organ- 
ism is purely conjectural. When the sound is produced it is con- 
veyed from the person talking to the recipient of the sound, who 
receives an auditory sensation, which he interprets. The sound is 
a symbol, which we interpret as meaning the same experience for 
the communicator as for the listener. In this way we learn his 
idea, but only by reproducing it from our experience, not by having 
it directly transmitted to us. 

The process of communication with spirits includes all these and 
no one knows how many more complications. We need not go be- 
yond telepathy between the living to see that the process is very dif- 
ferent from normal communication. Telepathy does not involve 
any known stimulus upon the sense-organs. What its process is we 
do not know. We only know that it does not affect the sensory ap- 
paratus as does a physical stimulus. 

The various methods recognized by laymen and set up as mys- 
terious do not appear to the psychologist to be of any importance in 
determining the nature of the process of communicating with the 
dead; hence he seeks some further characteristic which will make 
the phenomena intelligible. He notices first that all the p*henomena 
can be reduced to two types, motor and sensory. The motor type is 
.manifested in automatic writing, planchette, ouija board, and table- 
tipping. The sensory type is exhibited in apparitions, clairvoy- 
ance, clairaudience, and other sensory phantasms, whether of touch, 
taste or smell. The relation between the sensory and the motor 
types will be the subject of later consideration. At present we need 
only note that the essential feature of the process is most likely to 
be found in a characteristic common to the two types of phenomena. 
We shall first consider the sensory type, and may there find a clue 
to what goes on in the motor type. 

We cannot read ancient literature, Oriental, Hebrew, Greek, or 
Roman, without observing evidence of visions, though only in 
recent times have they become intelligible. The influence of science 
for several centuries, with its accusation of hallucination and de- 



no CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

lusion to account for every event inexplicable by material forces, 
has deprived the term vision of its original meaning. From the 
beginning of organized psychic research, the idea that a medium 
saw what she claimed to see was disparaged or ridiculed. The 
claim was regarded as evidence of fraud, or of hysterical hallucina- 
tions or delusions. But psychic researchers found what they called 
veridical hallucinations, experiences related to external events, often 
unknown to the subject, in a manner to give the hallucination a 
significance much more important than that attaching to subjective 
hallucinations. The psychologist and psychiatrist had always re- 
garded hallucinations as caused by some intraorganic stimulus, and 
the resultant hallucination was supposed merely to simulate reality. 
But veridical hallucinations were referable to an external cause 
to which they bore a relation like that of normal sensation to its 
stimulus. 

It was discovered very early in the investigation that telepathic 
subjects had apparently visual perceptions when receiving the im- 
pressions presumably created by the thoughts of the agent. The 
existence of these sensory phantasms is not questioned, though 
they are probably often subjective instead of veridical. If tele- 
pathy of any kind has been proved, the existence of veridical hal- 
lucinations has equally been proved. Apparitions illustrate the 
same phenomenon; and, indeed, from the outset of their investiga- 
tion it was apparent that many, if not all, of them must be classed 
as sensory hallucinations, veridical or subjective. Mr. Myers and 
Mr. Edmund Gumey conceived them after this fashion. On this 
understanding, we may concede to the skeptic the phantasmal char- 
acter of the experience, and yet insist on its definite relation to an 
external cause. The phantasm may not at all adequately represent 
that objective cause. On this assumption the paradoxes of the 
situation disappear; for instance, spirit clothes which have been 
so sore a perplexity to the average man, no longer present any 
difficulties. To conceive apparitions as veridical hallucinations or 
phantasms, is only to translate into mental terms what had be- 
fore seemed to be physical or quasi-physical phenomena. The as- 
surance that there is a foreign or external cause of the appearance, 
guarantees the existence, though not the characteristics, of spirits. 



THE PROCESS OF COMMUNICATING iii 

These considerations prepared the way for a more extensive 
application of the conception to the problem of communication with 
the dead. It is probable that Mr. Gurney and Mr. Myers fully ap- 
preciated the meaning of this new discovery, though they did not 
develop it into a completely expressed doctrine. However this may 
be, it is certain that, though I knew that their conception of appari- 
tions and of telepathy involved the idea of veridical hallucinations, 
I did not see the full significance of the theory until I had com- 
munication with Professor James after his death. I then saw what 
the founders of the Society had meant by their doctrine of veridical 
hallucinations. I thought at first that the theory was my own, but 
I soon discovered my mistake ; later it became apparent that Sweden- 
borg had anticipated all of us, though he had not worked out his 
ideas scientifically. 

So much for the development of the theory. What was neces- 
sary in ascertaining the process of communicating was to consider 
something more than the physical means of delivering the mes- 
sages. It was evident that the process involved more than the 
physical instrument, and that something unusual was at the bottom 
of the process. The most obtrusive fact was that the two general 
forms of communication, sensory and motor, corresponded to the 
two channels by which the mind is connected with the physical 
world. In the sensory field the most conspicuous phenomenon is 
clairvoyance; but it is apparent to the student of psychology that 
auditory phenomena represent in reality the same type. The voices 
are as veridical as the visions. Consequently, all sensory contacts 
with the discarnate world are simply veridical phantasms, visual, 
auditory, tactual, olfactory, or gustatory, and, perhaps we may 
add, emotional. The main point is, that supernormal sensory ex- 
periences are all of the same type and reducible to a single law, ex- 
pressed by the pictographic process. This process means, that the 
communicator manages to elicit in the living subject a sensory 
phantasm of his thoughts, representing, but not necessarily directly 
corresponding to, the reality. The motor process, giving rise to 
automatic writing, does not represent anything pictographic, though 
pictographic processes may precede it. What chiefly interests us 
here, however, is the development of the process which expressed 



112 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

itself in sensory imagery and which, interpreted after the analogies 
of sense-perception, gave the impression that the spiritual world 
was a quasi-material reality. 

I must now let the records tell their own story ; they will at the 
same time illustrate the difficulties of communicating. The main 
object is, to give those facts which are more or less evidential of the 
pictographic process and its importance, while they also represent 
actual communications on the question itself. 

A friend of Dr. Hodgson, whom in his report he calls George 
Pelham, died in 1892, while Dr. Hodgson was carrying on his 
experiments with Mrs. Piper. She knew nothing about the man, 
though he had had one sitting with her. By communications be- 
gun about two weeks after his death, of which Mrs. Piper was 
probably uninformed, he finally was able to convince Dr. Hodgson 
of the scientific truth of the spiritistic theory. G. P., as he is called 
in the records, gave excellent proof of his personal identity, and 
showed himself desirous of telling all he could about the problem 
that Dr. Hodgson was trying to solve. In the course of his ac- 
count he took up the process of communication and the mistakes 
and confusions in the messages. The following statement ap- 
pealed to Dr. Hodgson as having unusual interest. 

" Remember we share and always will have our friends in the 
dream-hfe, that is, your life so to speak, which will attract us for- 
ever and ever, and so long as we have any friends sleeping in the 
material world ; — you to us are more like as we understand sleep, 
you look shut up in prison, and in order for us to get into com- 
munication with you, we have to enter into your sphere, as one 
like yourself asleep. This is just why we make mistakes, as you 
call them, or get confused and muddled, so to put it, H." 

This statement, with its reference to sleep as the condition for 
communicating, as well as further incidental evidence, induced 
Dr. Hodgson to apply the hypothesis of a dream-state in the spirit 
as more or less necessary to communication with the living. He 
worked out the theory at some length in his report, which I fol- 
lowed with further evidence and defence. Before his death. Pro- 
fessor James knew the hypothesis well and admitted its cogency, 
but was not convinced of its truth. Very soon after his death and 



THE PROCESS OF COMMUNICATING 113 

in an early communication through Mrs. Chenoweth, who knew 
nothing about his views on this specific question, he made the follow- 
ing statements, after referring to the probable interest of the news- 
papers in his '' new revelation " : 

" It opens my eyes to some of the real difficulties in the way of actual 
communication to try the experiment myself." 

(Yes, do you find Hodgson and I were right about the difficulties?) 

" I think so, but it is too early for me to have positive conclusions." 

(All right, take your own course.) 

" I am of the opinion that some of the messages are produced without 
volition and they are caught by contact. Hence the broken and imperfect 
utterance on paper. Actual and complete contact would make the circuit 
and running capacity for trains of thought. Do you understand my ex- 
pression ? " 

(Yes, satisfactorily.) 

" I desire to have the work complete^ less jerky and disjointed than 
Richard gave us." 

This characteristic passage, reflecting the personal identity of 
Professor James, indicates one new fact, abundantly illustrated 
since that time, namely, that some messages are involuntary. The 
cause of this involuntary communication was indicated later in a 
definite way. Nearly a month later Professor James, through 
Mrs. Chenoweth, spontaneously took up the matter without a hint 
from such a question as I had put in the passage quoted above. 

" I seem to be able to reason while I am at work and that pleases me. So 
much of the work recorded in the past lacked that function." 

(That is correct.) 

" It always stood between me and my theories of what ought to be 
and often I said: This seems more like snatches of broken recollections 
detached and left solitary or wandering brain — " [Pause.] 

(Actions?) 

" No, photographs. You may recall what I am trying to tell you." 

(Phantasms?) 

" Yes, fugitive phantasms, unreal." 

(I understand.) 

" Unattached, floating in ethereal waves, caught, retained, expressed, 
as if by subliminal states not able to distinguish between the attached and 
unattached. The embodied or fugitive phantasms. This I was forced 
to consider when I would gladly have thrown it away as inadequate." 

The sudden reference to " photographs," accepted as phantasms 
after I had so interpreted the word, was an interesting allusion to 



114 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

the pictographic process, though I did not see its meaning at the 
time. The quaHfication of them as '' fugitive " was another refer- 
ence to " involuntary messages." The evident allusion to marginal 
mental pictures was not apparent to me at the time, nor the meaning 
of the expression " fugitive phantasms,", which was an epitome of 
both the idea of involuntary messages and of the pictographic 
process. It remained for G. P. to make the matter clear later. 

Nearly a month later Dr. Hodgson took up the subject and evi- 
dently tried to clarify it. He referred to the desire of Professor 
James in his communications to prevent the disjointed character of 
which he had to complain when hving. 

" His one desire is to be slow and let nothing come that is not his own. 
No fugitive ideas to float in unawares into the communications. This is 
not a new phase of thought to you and me. The fugitive expressions you 
understand." 

(Yes, perfectly.) 

" But we are seeking to eliminate all that, as far as we can at least, but 
it is almost impossible to completely inhibit one 's self and thought and let 
nothing but the pure present expression come. Try it yourself in the 
ordinary conversations of life and see how the fugitive drops in and is 
constantly bringing misunderstandings of the idea you are ^ trying to 
express to your most intimate friend." 

The " fugitive " in this instance is evidently what comae from 
other minds present, when another communicator is trying to send 
messages; but the second reference is to the phenomenon in the 
mind of the communicator. The allusion to the inabiHty to control 
one 's own mind assumes the possibility of " fugitive phantasms " 
from both the mind of the communicator and of others present. 
While the passage does not explicitly recognize involuntary mes- 
sages, it implies them. Evidently Dr. Hodgson was not able to 
make his message clear. Two days later Professor James re- 
curred to the subject and made clearer what he wished to say. 

" I have been making note of things to recall here and it is possible that 
some will be dropped in without special relevance, but with the statement 
that it is to be so. You understand." 

(Yes I shall.) 

" It may look like a French exercise book, but it is to be done with 
malice aforethought." 

(All right, all the maUce prepense you like.) 



THE PROCESS OF COMMUNICATING 115 

" So it will be absolved from the charge of dreams, dream talk, our 
old theme, a theory we more than once discussed and discarded and dis- 
cussed again." 

The allusion to " dream talk " was clearly to Dr. Hodgson's 
hypothesis, suggested by the communication of G. P. quoted above, 
as an explanation of the confusions and mistakes. The earlier 
reference to '' fugitive phantasms " was an attempt to explain the 
same fact, but the communicator got no further with the problem 
at this time. Some days later he took it up again. 

" Not all the evidence need be twaddle nor all the twaddle evidence." 

(Good.) 

*' It is the spirit of a man which survives, all that makes up his day, his 
weeks and years, tone, the quality, and I desire to prove, and not to give you 
a sample of deteriorated or disintegrated capacity. Have I made it clear? " 

(Yes, if I assume that you have to overcome a trance on your side.) 

" I am not entranced." 

(All right. Is there danger of going into a trance on your side and 
thus of preventing communications?) 

" On that subject we have had our conversation before." 

(Yes, how much is true?) 

" I passed into this life and we were obliged to assume that such was 
the case for two reasons. First, we were informed so by Imperator; 
second, the evidence submitted implied as much in many instances. But 
I must confess that the trance is absent in my case." 

Again we meet with the denial of the trance or dream state as 
necessary for communications, but the key to the problem is still 
to come, and it was given by G. P. some months later. I quote his 
statement in full. I asked a question and G. P. seized the oppor- 
tunity to go into the subject of immediate response to such queries 
and the difiQculties involved. 

" Your question sets thought working, but after a while I will tell you 
if I can." 

(All right. Go ahead.) 

" One good thing about working with you is your understanding of the 
difficulties and patience with us and we are never afraid to tell you the 
exact situation. The mental action is just the same here as with you, be- 
comes visible to you for it expresses in words. The body is a cloak for 
mental processes. Do you know what I mean?" 

(I can get sufficient idea not to worry about that.) 

" Every word from another sets a train of thought in motion and if 
your thoughts find visible or audible expression, you would be thought 



ii6 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

wandering in your mind the greater part of the time, but the whole 
process is almost instantaneous, and so you are saved the ignominy of 
the charge. But with us the thoughts are found on the paper sometimes 
and before we know it, and so it takes practice and will to keep the 
line steady and express only what we desire. Much of the past in various 
quarters can be explained in this statement." 

I saw at a flash what this remarkable statement meant. If our 
thoughts, which are realized in mental images, whether central or 
marginal or both, were to become visible or audible to a friend in 
conversation with us, as they would if they were transmitted to 
him as veridical phantasms, they would make him think that 
we were *' wandering in our minds." This idea, taken with the 
denial that the communicator was in a dream state and that the 
communicator could not inhibit the expression of his thoughts, 
together with the reference to " fugitive phantasms " or marginal 
thoughts whether of one's own mind or that of others present, ex- 
plains the confusion in messages and shows that pictographic phe- 
nomena are the clue to the understanding of the problem. I saw 
the whole meaning of the theory of Mr. Gurney and Mr. Myers 
about veridical phantasms. If we add the idea that G. P. clearly 
perceives what is going on all the time in all minds, living or dead, to 
the idea that transmission takes the form of hallucinations or mental 
pictures, we have an explanation of clairvoyance and a clear idea 
of the process of communicating. 

It required but an extension of this principle to the other senses, 
to render the whole field intelligible, in so far as sensory functions 
are concerned. It still remained to be ascertained whether the 
pictographic process lies back of communication by motor expres- 
sion. The process is less clearly apparent in motor phenomena; 
but further communications have rendered it probable that mental 
pictures lie behind the motor expression, and that automatic writ- 
ing may involve special difficulties in transmitting the thoughts of 
the communicator. If the medium have the habit of interpreting 
in speech her own visual imagery, she may be qualified to transmit 
in automatic writing the thought that comes to her mind in 
pictures. 

This pictographic process is what G. P. probably meant in the 
passage quoted from his communications through Mrs. Piper; the 



THE PROCESS OF COMMUNICATING 117 

message was possibly distorted in the transmission. He was ap- 
parently describing the similarity between the living and the de- 
ceased mind in the comparison with the " dream life." This is 
not evident on the surface of his statement; but, when we consider 
that the spirits have access to our minds through the subconscious, 
which is well described as the ''dream-life," and that the subliminal 
of Mrs. Piper either did not catch the true meaning of his mes- 
sage or distorted it by abbreviation, we can realize that he may 
have been trying to show that the panoramic stream of images in 
the communicator's mind, both central and marginal, voluntary 
and involuntary, is transmitted to the mind of the medium and 
there has to undergo either abbreviation or interpretation and se- 
lection. In this way arises confusion which we do not experience 
in ordinary intercourse with each other in normal life, because 
we can inhibit what we do not wish conveyed to our friend in con- 
versation. 

It is impossible to go into the significance of this pictographic 
process with adequate detail. Though we can only name it with- 
out describing the intimate nature of the process, we can understand 
that it makes communication more intelligible than does the study 
of the mechanical devices or methods of communication. We are 
nearer the heart of the problem when we are able to recognize a 
psychological process in it. We do not know in detail all that goes 
on, but when we can conceive that a mental picture in the mind of 
a communicator is transmitted, perhaps telepathically, to the psychic 
or to the control ; even though we do not know how this occurs, we 
can understand why the message takes the form that it does in 
the -mind of the psychic and why the whole process assumes the 
form of a description of visual, or a report of auditory images. 
The whole mass of facts is thus systematized as a single process, 
whose specific form of transmission is determined by the sense 
through which it is expressed. 

The pictographic process was not apparent in the work of Mrs. 
Piper, except in the transition from the subliminal to the normal 
state. Here she was a spectator of transcendental events or of the 
phantasms transmitted to her mind and taken for realities. But 
in her deep trance the visual functions apparently were not em- 



ii8 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

ployed. A careful examination of the records shows that, in the 
deep trance for automatic writing, she was the recipient of auditory] 
rather than visual impressions, and hence there was no distinct 
evidence of the pictographic process in the automatic writing. 
Now Mrs. Chenoweth is par excellence a visuel only and nothing 
of an audile. Mrs. Chenoweth showed no aptitude for auditory 
phantas^ms; it took two or three years of training to elicit any of 
them to help out the meaning of the visual images, which she re- 
ceived with comparative ease. The association of the two is a great 
help in the interpretation of messages, as it is in ordinary ex- 
perience. 

The popular mind fails to appreciate the real complexity of the 
problem. It assumes that, if the medium is honest or unconscious 
of the communications, the whole material comes from the spirit; 
it does not take into account the subconscious of the psychic, the 
various processes of the mind going on under the threshold of 
consciousness. But when we introduce into the problem the picto- 
graphic process, we are able to concentrate attention on a better 
conception of the problem. 

It is apparent that the pictographic process introduces into the 
communications various sources of mistake and confusion, and 
thus explains much that the ordinary man with his view of the 
messages cannot understand. Mental pictures have to be inter- 
preted, either by the control or by the subconscious of the psychic, 
probably by both. But whether interpreted or not, and whether 
the subconscious is as important a factor in the result as the mind 
of the control, interest is centered in the pictographic process itself, 
with its measure of identity between the thought of the communi- 
cator and of the percipient, with its aptitude for bringing confusion 
and mistake into the ultimate form of the messages. 

I have referred to the control as another mind than that of the 
psychic. Laymen usually assume that the whole process is one 
between the spirit and the medium, or, if the medium is in a trance, 
between the spirit and the sitter. The process is in reality much 
more complex. The pictographic process is but one factor in a com- 
plex situation, which involves not only the mind of the medium, 
conscious and subconscious, but also the mind of the control. A 



THE PROCESS OF COMMUNICATING 119 

study of the records will give overwhelming evidence of this modi- 
fying influence on all messages. 

In the work of Mrs. Chenoweth, the guides distinguish between 
what they call the direct and the indirect method of communicating. 
The direct method seems superficially to be automatic writing, 
though it is more than that; the indirect method is always the use 
of the pictographic process, which requires 'the control to act as an 
intermediary between the communicator and the medium. The 
communicator simply allows his mind to run over his memories 
in a panoramic form; these are transmitted to the control as 
veridical phantasms, and are there interpreted, and either trans- 
ferred directly by automatic writing through the psychic or again 
through her subconscious by mental pictures and reinterpreted 
there. When we add to this situation the fact that the communi- 
cator cannot determine just what shall be transmitted to the con- 
trol or the subconscious of the psychic, and that marginal images 
in the mind of the communicator may be picked up instead of the 
central or intended ones, we can understand why the messages do 
not always give the impression of perfect rationality and why so 
much real or apparent confusion occurs. Every message has to 
run the gauntlet of selection in the mind that sends it and in the 
mind that receives the pictographic images, and then be subject to 
the liabilities of misinterpretation and distortion, by the minds both 
of the control and of the psychic. 

But the complexities do not end here. As the process of trans- 
mission is not always under the complete regulation of either con- 
trol or psychic, there are evident in many messages phenomena like 
" crossed wires" on the telephone. Sometimes A, communicating 
to B on the telephone, unconsciously transmits his message to some 
one else whose wire '' crosses " with A's, and without intention 
on the part of either A or the unknown receiver that this latter 
should obtain the message; mechanical conditions accidentally 
arise in which the words of A are picked up and transmitted to 
some one else. Something analogous to this often occurs in spir- 
itistic messages. Conditions accidentally arise in which the 
thoughts of some one other than the intended communicator are 
picked up and transmitted without the knowledge of either the 



120 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

control or the medium that it is the wrong message. This phe- 
nomenon occurred frequently under the Phinuit regime with Mrs. 
Piper. Those near at the time had their thoughts unwittingly 
picked up and transmitted, with a resulting impression of false or 
irrelevant messages. Sometimes, with Mrs. Piper, there would 
come to a sitter messages that were wholly false to him; but, on 
inquiry of a previous sitter, it was found that the statements were 
true of that person. Whether they were subliminal resurgences of 
previously received messages, or the accidental transmission of 
present thoughts by a previous communicator who happened to be 
present, is immaterial. 

Here are two instances in my work with Mrs. Chenoweth : On 
one occasion, as she began to go into the trance, in the subliminal 
stage when she sees pictographic phantasms and describes them, 
she saw a lady whom she had never seen or known, and identified 
her by name; a moment later she remarked that Dr. Hodgson was 
standing beside her. She went slowly over what Dr. Hodgson 
was saying to her, then reached for the pencil, and wrote a mes- 
sage from Dr. Hodgson, who said that it had not been his inten- 
tion to communicate. In the other instance, a lady was having a 
sitting. On previous days her father and mother had communi- 
cated. On this day, however, some one else began a series of 
very intimate 'messages. As soon as the sitting was over I asked 
the lady if the messages were relevant; she said that they were 
wholly meaningless. I knew the communicator by the signature 
of his pet name and wrote to his widow to ask whether the mes- 
sages were correct. Her reply was that they were, and as none 
of us present knew about the incidents communicated, they had 
much evidential value, though they were wholly irrelevant to 
the sitter. 

In both these instances, it was probably the diversion of the 
medium's subconscious attention from the persons wanted to the 
person in whom she was interested, that established rapport and 
gave rise to irrelevant messages. It is the business of the controls 
to prevent or inhibit such phenomena, but they may be unsuccessful, 
either because of the diverted attention of the psychic or of the 
greater intensity of some other personality. 



THE PROCESS OF COMMUNICATING 121 

But the process is yet more complex. Often a whole group of 
controls is involved in the effort to get a message through from 
a given person, and one long used to the phenomena can detect 
evidence of their cooperation in stray messages that slip through 
after the manner af indirect messages just described; cases are 
even on record in which there is marked evidence of the interfusion 
of the thoughts of two or more persons in a message that purports 
to come from one person. This interfusion explains the failure 
to discover the personal characteristics of the purported communi- 
cator. I have even remarked it in the hand-writing, which showed 
the characteristics of two controls, while the essential characteris- 
tics of the normal hand- writing of the medium were also clearly 
discernible. 

To imagine the pictographic influences of a dozen minds hovering 
around a psychic, all exposed, like a delicate mechanical mechanism, 
to various undulations and influences, is to form some conception 
of the difficulties of communication between the discarnate and the 
incarnate. It is probable that there are hidden intermundane con- 
ditions and processes necessary to the transmission of mental pic- 
tures or to the transformation of the thoughts of the communi- 
cator into pictorial impressions. Future investigation must fill 
in the remaining gaps between the thought of the communicator and 
the picture received and described by the control. 

The relation of the pictographic process to automatic writing 
has not been determined, but it is fair to imagine that it may bear 
some resemblance to the influence of our own mental imagery upon 
the motor system. At any rate, the direct method involves condi- 
tions in which, whatever place the control still preserves in the 
process, he is either not so near the psychic or can let the com- 
municator's thought influence the medium more directly than when 
receiving the pictorial figures and interpreting them. The picto- 
graphic process may lie behind that of automatic writing, though 
its presence is not so easily detected as in the indirect method. 



I 



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PART III 
EVIDENCE OF SURVIVAL 



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9 



CHAPTER XI 
EXPERIENCES OF WELL-KNOWN PERSONS 

IT has frequently been the accusation that experiences purport- 
ing to represent the supernatural are confined to the ignorant 
and superstitious. The work of the English Society has been a 
convincing refutation of this reproach; there can be no doubt of the 
respectability and intelligence of those who reported the facts of 
their experience. It is true enough that " old wives' fables," and 
dreams of sailors, porters, and coachmen will never affect the 
minds of scientific psychologists, for obvious reasons. It is just 
as true that experiences from these classes, if subjected tO' cross- 
questioning and to corroboration, have interest. But the mere 
word of an intelligent person secures attention, and in scien- 
tific matters may often go far to silence ridicule or to invite in- 
vestigation. 

The first instance of note is the apparition of his friend, appear- 
ing to Lord Brougham. It is taken from '* Phantasms of the 
Living," where it was copied from his own biography. He and 
a friend at the University of Edinburgh had discussed the immor- 
tality of the soul, and had signed in their own blood an agreement 
that whichever died first should appear to the other. Soon after 
they left the University the friend went out to India in the gov- 
ernment service, and was there some years ; meanwhile he was al- 
most forgotten by Lord Brougham. The latter was travelling in 
Sweden in cold weather, and at about i p. m. he was taking a hot 
bath. Suddenly he saw an apparition of his friend in the chair 
where he had left his own clothes. He got out of the bath; but, 
on recovering from what was evidently a trance, he found that his 
friend had disappeared. He wrote down the facts, with the date, 
in his journal. He returned to Edinburgh; and some weeks later 
received a letter from India, bearing the same date as that re- 

125 



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126 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

cording his experience in his journal, and telling of the death of 
his friend. 

Mr. Andrew Lang records that he once saw an apparition which 
he took for Professor Conington; he ascertained afterwards that 
the time coincided very closely with that of Professor Conington's 
death. The latter was one hundred miles distant at the time. 

James Cotter Morison, a literary man well-known in England, 
is sponsor for an incident of some interest. He writes to the au- 
thors of " Phantasms of the Living " : 

" My mother and grandmother were together in the dining room 
of their house in the Isle of Wight, occupied in some domestic mat- 
ter which made the exclusion of chance visitors desirable. A sud- 
den knock at the door caused my grandmother to hasten to it with 
a view to taking the stranger into the drawing room. The knock 
was heard by both mother and daughter. On opening the door 
with the least loss of time possible, my grandmother was surprised 
to find not only no one there, but no one even in the long corridor 
which led to the drawing room. My mother distinctly remembered 
the look of astonishment in her mother's face as she returned from 
the door. Nothing more was said on the subject, but in a short 
time afterwards a letter was received from London from my 
grandmother's sister, saying that she (the sister) had been most 
seriously ill, at death's door indeed, but was now a little better, 
and wished my grandmother to come and see her. The latter 
went up to town and found her sister still very ill, but slowly re- 
covering. After the mutual endearments natural to such an occa- 
sion, my grandmother said : 

" * Do you know, such a strange thing occurred, exactly at the 
time, it seems, when you were supposed to be dead or dying.' 

" ' I know what you are going to say,' said the other. * When 
I was in the trance which was mistaken for death, I thought I went 
to your house in the Isle of Wight and knocked at your drawing 
room door. You opened it instantly and looked much affrighted 
at not seeing me or any one, though I saw you.' 

" The singular point in the story is the anticipation by the one 
sister of what the other was going to say. 

" No theory or inference was ever deduced by my relations from 



9 



EXPERIENCES OF WELL-KNOWN PERSONS 127 

the circumstance and it was only mentioned as an odd coincidence 
by them and their friends, who, as well as my mother, have often 
told me the story '* 

Mr. Morison then adds that his grandmother was a \loman of 
" strong understanding " and " had an aversion to what she called 
superstition, belief in ghosts, etc." 

G. J. Romanes, the contemporary and scientific peer of Charles 
Darwin, narrates the following as his own personal experience. As 
an evolutionist, his name is known the world over. 

'' Towards the end of March, 1878, in the dead of night, while 
believing myself to be awake, I thought the door at the head of 
imy bed was opened and a white figure passed along the side of the 
bed to the foot, where it faced about and showed Ine it was cov- 
ered head and all in a shroud. Then with its hands it suddenly 
parted the shroud over the face, revealing between its two hands 
the face of my sister, who was ill in another room. I exclaimed 
her name, whereupon the figure vanished instantly. Next day 
(and certainly on account of the shock given me by the above 
experience), I called in Sir William Jenner, who said my sister 
had not many days to live. (She died, in fact, very soon after- 
ward.) 

'' I was in good health, without any grief or anxiety. My sis- 
ter was being attended by our family doctor, who did not suspect 
anything serious; therefore I had had no anxiety at all on her ac- 
count, nor had she herself." 

Robert Louis Stevenson reported to Mr. Myers four different ex- 
periences which represent dissociation or split consciousness. It 
is not necessary to detail them here. 

Professor J. Estlin Carpenter reports a case of apparition within 
his own knowledge, though it is not evidential. 

Ben Jonson had a vision of his son " with a bloodie cross upon 
his forehead," coincidental w4th the child's death at a distance. 

Among experiences of Americans, the first case of interest is 
that of James G. Blaine as told by Gail Hamilton in a little brochure 
called '' X-Rays." She collected there a large number of signifi- 
cant experiences ; the present incident is connected with death visions 
and represents two different persons seeing the same deceased man 



128 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

or an apparition of him at different tiines. Mrs. Coppinger was 
the daughter and Walker was the son of James G. Blaine. 

" Mrs. Coppinger died two weeks after the death of her brother 
Walker. In the later stages of her illness, she more than once 
spoke of his presence and tried to convince others of it. ' Do not 
you see Walker? ' she asked. ' He is looking at you as if he loved 
you.' When, two years afterwards, her father was near the other 
world, as he lay quiet and silent in the evening dusk, a sorrowing 
watcher said, in a low. voice, ' I am dreading all the time to hear 
him talk of Walker. Don't you remember Alice?' The next 
evening at the same hour we were sitting in the same place, when 
Mr. Blaine suddenly exclaimed 'Walker!' in the familiar tone of 
slight, pleasant surprise." 

Such visions are not necessarily premonitory of death, though 
they are invariably indications that the person is near death. He or 
she may recover, but as the larger proportion of people so near 
death actually die, the popular belief has arisen that such visions 
are premonitions. 

Carl Schurz, an officer in the Civil War and afterwards a member 
of the United States Senate from Missouri, tells the following ex- 
perience in his '' Memoirs," which were published in " McClure's 
Magazine " for April, 1908. He was a scholar of the best type as 
well as an able statesman. 

" On the way to Washington, something strange happened to me 
which may be of interest to the speculative psychologist. In Phil- 
adelphia I had supper at the home of my intimate friend, Mr. Tiede- 
mann, son of the eminent professor of medicine at the University 
of Heidelberg, and brother of Colonel Tiedemann, one of whose 
aides-de-camp I had been during the siege of the Fortress of Rastatt 
in 1849. ^^s. Tiedemann was a sister of Frederick Hecker, the 
famous revolutionary leader in Germany, who in this country had 
rendered distinguished service as a Union officer. The Tiedemanns 
had lost two sons in our army, one in Kansas, and the other, a 
darling boy, in the Shenandoah Valley. The mother, a lady of a 
bright mind and a lively imagination, happened to become ac- 
quainted with a circle of spiritualists, and received * messages ' 
from her two sons, which were of the ordinary sort, but which 



EXPERIENCES OF WELL-KNOWN PERSONS 129 

moved her so much that she became a beHever. The Doctor, 
too, although belonging to a school of philosophy which looked 
down upon such things with a certain disdain, could not 
restrain a sentimental interest in the pretended communication 
from her lost boys, and permitted experiment to be made in 
his family. This was done with much zest. On the evening 
of which I speak it was re'solved to have a seance. One of 
the daughters, an uncommonly beautiful, intelligent, and high- 
spirited girl of about fifteen, had shown remarkable qualities as a 
* writing medium-.' When the circle was formed around the table, 
hands touching, a shiver seemed to pass over her, her fingers began 
to twitch, she grasped a pencil held out to her, and, as if obeying 
an irresistible impulse, she wrote in a jerking way upon a piece of 
paper placed befq/re her the * messages ' given her by the * spirits ' 
who we«re present. So it happened that evening. The names of 
various deceased persons known to the family were announced, but 
they had nothing' to say except that they ' lived in a higher sphere,' 
and were ' happy,' were ' often with us,' and ' wished us all to be 
happy,' etc. 

" Finally I was asked by one of the family i»f I could not take 
part in the proceeding by calling for some spirit in whom I took 
an interest. I consented and called for Schiller. For a minute 
or two the hand of the girl remained qurlet; then she wrote that 
the spirit o.f Schiller had come and asked what I wished of him. 
I answered that I wished him by way of ideuftification, to quote 
a verse or two from one of his works. Then the girl wrote in 
German the following: 

Von Lichtern hell. Wer sind die frohlichen? 
Ich hore rauschende music, das Schloss ist 

"We were all struck with astonishment; the sound of the lan- 
guage was much like Schiller's works but none of us remembered 
for a moment in which of Schiller's works the lines might be found. 
At last it occurred to me that they might be in the last act of ' Wal- 
lenstein's Tod.' The volume was brought out and true enough 
there they were. I asked myself, ' Can it be that the girl, who, 
although very intelligent, has never been given to much reading. 



130 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

should have read so serious a work as * Wallenstein's Death ' ; and, 
if she has, that those verses, which have meaning only in connection 
with what precedes and follows them, should have stuck in her 
memory? I asked her, when the seance was over, what she knew 
about the Wallenstein tragedy, and she, an entirely truthful child, an- 
swered that she had never read a line of it. 

" But something still stranger w^as in store for me. Schiller's 
spirit would say no more, and I called for the spirit of Abraham 
Lincoln. Aftei* several minutes had elapsed, the girl wrote that 
Abraham Lincoln's spirit was present. I asked whether he knew 
to what purpose President Johnson had summoned me to Wash- 
ington. The answer came : ' He wants you to make an important 
journey for him.' I asked where that journey would take me. 
Answer : ' He will tell you to-morrow.' I asked further whether 
I should undertake that journey. Answer: 'Yes, do not fail.' 
(I may add, by the way, that at the time I had not the slightest 
anticipation as to what President Johnson's intention with regard 
to me was; the most pilausible supposition I entertained was that 
he wished to discuss with me the points urged in my letter. ) 

" Having disposed of this matter I asked whether the spirit of 
Lincoln had anything more to say to me. Th,e answer came : 
' Yes., you will be senator of the United States.' This struck me 
as so fanciful that I could hardly suppress a laugh; but I 
asked further: ' From what state? ' Answer: * From Missouri.' 
This was more provokingly mysterious still ; but there the conversa- 
tion ceased. Hardly anything could have been more improbable at 
that time than that I should be a senator of the United States from 
Missouri. My domicile was in Wisconsin, and I was thinking of 
returning there. I had never thought of removing from Wisconsin 
to Missouri, and there was not the slightest prospect of my ever 
doing so. But — to forestall my narrative — two years later I was 
surprised by an entirely unsought and unexpected business proposi- 
tion which took me to St. Louis, and in January, 1869, the legis- 
lature of Missouri elected me a senator of the United States. I 
then remembered the prophecy made to me at the spirit seance in 
the house of my friend Tiedemann in Philadelphia which, during 
the intervening years, I had never thought of. I should hardly 



EXPERIENCES OF WELL-KNOWN PERSONS 131 

have trusted my memory with regard to it, had it not been verified 
by friends who witnessed the occurrence." 

Inquiring on my own part of a friend in Philadelphia, a physician, 
I ascertained that he knew this Dr. Tiedemann, and, from another 
who knew him well, I found out that he was a man of intelligence 
and that the phenomena were entirely private and had no connec- 
tion w^ith professional mediumship, a fact apparent in the account 
of Mr. Schurz. 

The following incident, published in the " Journal "of the Amer- 
ican Society for Psychical Research, Volume VII, p. 129, can be 
found in the life of Laura Bridgman, the blind, deaf and dumb 
girl of especial interest for her intelligence as manifested through 
the tactual sense alone. 

" Miss Paddock and Miss Wight [two teachers in the * Perkins 
Institute,' each of whom had Laura as a special pupil] were greatly 
attached to each other, and spent much of their leisure time to- 
gether. They often noticed, as they sat talking of an afternoon, 
with Laura near by knitting at her purses or pretty lace edging, 
that she would suddenly lay down her work and begin talking [with 
her fingers] of the person or topic they had been discussing. The 
two young women were so much impressed by the frequency with 
which Laura took up the subject of their conversation when no 
possible clue of it had been given to her by word or act, that both 
believed the girl often knew what they were talking about, and the 
girls often said to each other, what they would have been abashed 
to say to older and wiser people, that Laura always knew what 
they were thinking of, if their thoughts were strongly concentrated 
upon an idea or a person." 

There was an excellent opportunity here to investigate either 
hyperaesthesia of touch or telepathy, but no scientific spirit existed 
and a transcendent opportunity was lost. 

Horace Bushnell in 1858 published a book called '' Nature and the 
Supernatural," in which he mentions a number of incidents that 
show he anticipated psychic research. He was a reforming theo- 
logian, founder of the " moral theory "of the atonement, and 
perhaps the forerunner of all progressive theology in this country. 
Some of the incidents which he narrates would not stand the test 



132 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

of science, but one of them so accords with what has been proved 
by later investigation that it deserves quotation. He reports from 
an apparently reliable source the fact of an interesting coincidental 
dream, which was told by him by the dreamer, Captain Yonnt. 

" About six or seven years previous, in a mid-winter's night, he 
had a dream in which he saw what appeared to be a company of 
emigrants, arrested by the snows of the mountains, and perishing 
rapidly by cold and hunger. He noted the very cast of the scenery, 
marked by a huge perpendicular front of white rock cliff; he saw 
the men cutting off what appeared to be tree tops, rising out of 
deep gulfs of snow : he distinguished the very features of the per- 
sons and the look of their particular distress. He woke, profoundly 
impressed with the distinctness and apparent reality of his dream. 
At length he fell asleep and dreamed exactly the same dream again. 
In the morning he could not expel it from his mind. Falling in 
shortly with an old hunter comrade he told him the story and was 
only the more deeply impressed by his recognizing, without hesi- 
tation, the scenery of the dream. This comrade came over the 
Sierra by the Carson Valley Pass, arid declared that a spot in the 
pass answered exactly to his description. By this the unsophisti- 
cated patriarch was decided. He immediately collected a company 
of men, mules and blankets, and all necessary provisions. The 
neighbors were laughing in the meantime at his credulity. * No 
matter,' said he, ' I am able to do this, and I will, for I verily be- 
lieve that the fact is according to my dream.' The men were sent 
into the mountains, one hundred and fifty miles distant, directly 
to the Carson Valley Pass. And there they found the company in 
exactly the condition of the dream, and brought in the remnant 
alive. 

"A gentleman present said, 'You need have no doubt of this; 
for we in California all know the facts, and the names of the fam- 
ilies brought in, who now look upon our venerable friend as a kind 
of savior.' These names he gave and the place where they reside, 
and I found afterwards that the California people were ready ev- 
erywhere to second his testimony." 

Psychic researchers are familiar enough with coincidental dreams 
and would have no difficulty now in accepting this one. 



EXPERIENCES OF WELL-KNOWN PERSONS 133 

Louisa M. Alcott tells a story, corroborated by the physician, of 
an experience relating to the death of her sister. 

" A few moments after the last breath came, as mother and I 
sat watching the shadow fall on the dear little face, I saw a light 
mist rising from the body, and float up and vanish in the air. 
Mother's eyes followed mine, and when I said, ' What did you see ? ' 
she described the same light mist. Dr. G. said it was life departing 
visibly." 

The character of the experience as shared, removes it from easy 
explanation as an ordinary hallucination; and the character of the 
informant makes it the more impressive. 

Mark Twain had an experience which he called *' mental teleg- 
raphy "; he offered it to the publisher of a well-known magazine, 
but it was rejected as one of his jokes. He kept it some years; 
H^ and, after psychic research had become respectable and coincidences 
' of the kind had become credible, the magazine published it. He 
also had a premonitory dream, which his biographer, Mr. Albert 
Bigelow Paine, records. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) was 
a steersman at the time on one of the Mississippi steamers. 

'* One night, when the Pennsylvania lay in St. Louis, he slept 
at his sister's house and had this vivid dream : 

*' ' He saw Henry [his brother] a corpse, lying in a metallic burial 
case in the sitting room, supported on two chairs. On his breast 
lay a bouquet of flowers, white, with a single crimson bloom in 
the center.' 

'' When he awoke, it was morning, but the dream was so vivid 
that he believed it real. Perhaps something of the old hypnotic 
condition was upon him, but he rose and dressed, thinking he would 
go in and look at his dead brother. Instead he went out on the 
street in the early morning and had walked to the middle of the 
block before it suddenly flashed upon him that it was only a dream. 
He bounded back, rushed to the sitting room and felt a great 
trembling revulsion of joy when he found it really empty. He told 
Pamela [his sister] the dream, then put it out of his mind as quickly 
as he could. The Pennsylvania sailed from St. Louis as usual and 
made a safe trip to New Orleans. [Henry and Samuel both being 
employees on the steamer.] 



134 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

" It is doubtful if he remembered his recent disturbing dream, 
though some foreboding would seem to have hung over him the 
night before the Pennsylvania sailed on the return trip. . . . On 
this particular night the elder, Samuel, spoke of disaster on the 
river. Finally he said: 

" ' In case of accident, whatever you do, don't lose your head 
— the passengers will do that. Rush for the hurricane deck and 
to the life boat, and obey the mate's orders. When the boat is 
launched, help the women and children into it. Don't get in 
yourself. The river is only a mile wide. You can swim ashore 
easily enough.' 

" It was good manly advice, but it yielded a long harvest of 
sorrow. Henry was burned on the return trip by the escaping 
steam from the steamer's engines, four of which blew up, causing 
an immense loss of life by drowning and scalding. Henry, clear 
of danger and able to swim ashore, returned to help others and 
was scalded by breathing steam and died after several days. 

" He, Samuel, saw the body down to the dead room, then the 
long strain of grief, the days and nights without sleep, the ghastly 
realization of the end, overcame him. ... It was many hours be- 
fore he awoke; when he did ... he dressed and went to where 
Henry lay. The coffins provided for the dead were of unpainted 
wood, but the youth and striking face of Henry Clemens had 
aroused a special interest. The ladies of Memphis had made up a 
fund of sixty dollars and bought him a metallic case. Samuel, 
entering, saw his brother lying exactly as he had seen him in his 
dream, lacking only the bouquet of white flowers with its crimson 
center — a detail made complete while he stood there, for at the 
moment an elderly lady came in with a large white bouquet, and in 
the center of it was a single red rose." 

This is a graphic incident; but the details of the premonition 
must excite skepticism, which would be supported by the risk of 
paramnesia, an illusion of memory, especially since his biographer 
speaks of Mark Twain's liability to strange mistakes of memory, 
probably connected with the intensity of his imagination. But 
such as it is, he told his biographer the story as a fact. 

Professor James obtained through Frank R. Stockton a narra- 



EXPERIENCES OF WELL-KNOWN PERSONS 135 

tive of some experiences in his sister's house which, though not his 
own, he could vouch for. His sister was the subject of them. 
They consisted of apparent footsteps in the house, which, though 
not assuredly extraordinary, were inexplicable, and were made the 
subject of critical examination. 

James Otis, the celebrated lawyer, had often expressed the wish 
that he should meet his death by lightning. While staying in the 
country, he was standing in the door when he was killed by a sud- 
den stroke of lightning. The coincidence is hardly evidence of 
a supernormal premonition, but it is reported as a fact. 

An experience of Mr. Chauncey Depew, former United States 
senator from the State of New York, has at least the suggestion of 
premonition. The following is the newspaper account of the ex- 
perience, which Mr. Depew confirmed by a personal letter to Pro- 
fessor Newbold, of the University of Pennsylvania, in which he 
states that " the story is substantially true as written." It occurred 
on the eve of the political convention which nominated Theodore 
Roosevelt for the governorship of New York State. This was in 
October, 1898. 

" On Saturday afternoon, before the Republican Convention was 
to meet, Mr. Depew w^ent to the Country Club, at Ardsley-on-the- 
Hudson, which was his temporary home, and after luncheon he 
went out upon the piazza, from which a beautiful vista across the 
Hudson can be obtained. 

" He sat there, lazily intent upon the scenery, which was espe- 
cially agreeable to a man who had been for a week in the thick 
of the most exciting business undertakings. By and by the vista 
seeimed to pass away. Pie saw as vividly as though the scene were 
real the convention hall in Saratoga. He saw the delegates stroll 
in. He looked at the presiding officer, whose name he did not 
know, as he called the convention to order. 

'' He heard the temporary chairman's speech, he saw the various 
details of preliminary organization, and all the work in the con- 
vention was as vivid as though he were a part of it at the moment. 
Then at last he saw Mr. Quigg make a motion for the nomination 
of candidates and heard the brief comment with which Mr. Quigg 
accompanied that motion. 



136 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

" He did not, it is true, know that as a matter of fact Mr. Quigg 
was to make that motion ; nevertheless he saw him do it. He said 
to himself, * Your time is come for your speech placing Roosevelt 
in nomination.' He saw himself rise, address the chair, and heard 
himself deliver the speech and felt the glow of satisfaction at its 
reception, which is the highest reward of eloquence. 

" After that, the convention hall, the voices of the orators, the 
faces of the delegates faded away as in a dream, and Mr. Depew 
again saw the vista of the Hudson and the distant mountains across 
the stream. He got up, went to his room and wrote out with 
his own hand the speech, exactly as he afterward in fact delivered 
it. 

*"' The address which the delegates heard was the address which 
by that singular preoccupancy of the mind, Mr. Depew composed 
on that dreamy Saturday afternoon. Afterward, at the conven- 
tion, he was amazed to discover that the picture which he saw with 
his mind's eye was perfectly reproduced to his physical eye and 
ear in the convention, even to the words of the chairman and the 
manner and motion of Mr. Quigg." 

We should like to have had the details of the " vision " before 
it was fulfilled at Saratoga. Though we cannot obtain these, the 
experience has the character of Mr. Depew to give it interest. 

Ernest Thompson-Seton, the traveler, tells some experiences in 
connection with prediction and clairvoyance among the Indians. 
There was an especially reliable old guide whom he asked to ac- 
company him on an important trip. The old Indian went, taking 
with him " a new shirt and a pair of pants " — this was the outfit 
of a corpse ; and the Indian explained that he was to die, " when 
the sun rose at that island " (a week ahead), before the of^cer in 
charge came back. A week after they had started he put on the 
new clothes and said, " To-day I die when the sun is over that 
island." The author adds: "He went out looking at the sun 
from time to time, placidly smoking. When the sun got to the 
right place he came in, lay down by the fire and in a few minutes 
was dead." 

Auto-suggestion is probable in this case; but we do not know 
what auto-suggestion is! It may be as supernormal as any mate- 



z' 



EXPERIENCES OF WELL-KNOWN PERSONS 137 

rialization would be. The main point is, that the incident is vouched 
for by a reHable and disinterested reporter. 

Dwight L. Moody, the evangehst, had an experience which ap- 
parently forecast some danger to him, a few days before the arrest 
of a lunatic, who felt himself commissioned to assassinate Mr. 
Moody and had tried for days to get an opportunity to stab him. 
The incident is not striking, and would have no standing alone in 
a scientific court; but it is one of a large number with good cre- 
dentials. 

Sir Henry Stanley, the African explorer, narrates a personal ex- 
perience of the coincidental type. While a private in the Confed- 
erate Army, he was captured at Shiloh and sent to Camp Douglas 
near Chicago. His biographer writes the account as he told it : 

"On the next day (April 16, 1862), after the morning duties 
/ had been performed, the rations divided, the cooks had departed 
contented, and the quarters had been swept, I proceeded to my nest 
and reclined alongside of my friend Wilkes in a posture that gave 
me command of one half of the building. I made some remarks to 
him upon the card-playing groups opposite, when suddenly I felt a 
gentle stroke on the back of my neck, and in an instant I was un- 
conscious. The next moment I had a vivid view of the village of 
Tremeirchion and the glassy slopes of the hills of Hirradog, and 
I seemed to be hovering over the rook woods of Brynbella. I glided 
to the bed chamber of my Aunt Mary. My aunt was in bed and 
seemed sick unto death. I took a position by the side of the bed, 
and saw myself, with head bent down, listening to her parting 
words, which sounded regretful, as though conscience smote her 
for not having been so kind as she might have been, or had wished 
to be. I heard the boy say, * I believe you, Aunt. It is neither 
your fault nor mine. You were good and kind to me, and I knew 
you wished to be kinder; but things were so ordered that you had 
to be what you were. I also dearly wished to love you, but I was 
afraid to speak of it, lest you would check me or say something 
that w^ould offend me. I feel our parting was in this spirit. There 
is no need of regrets. You have done your duty to me, and you 
had children of your own, who required all your care. What has 
happened to me since, was decreed should happen. Farewell.' 



138 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

" I put forth my hand and felt the clasp of the long thin hands 
of the sore-sick woman. I heard a murmur of farewell, and im- 
mediately I woke. 

" It appeared to me that I had but closed my eyes. I was still 
in the same reclining attitude, the groups opposite me were still 
engaged in their card games, Wilkes was in the same position. 
Nothing had changed. I asked, * What has happened ? ' 

" * What could happen ? ' said he. * What makes you ask ? It 
is but a moment ago you were speaking to me.' 

" * Oh, I thought I had been asleep a long time.' 

" On the next day, the 17th of April, 1862, my Aunt Mary 
died at Fynnon Beuno [in Wales] ! " 

General John C. Fremont, who was the first candidate for the 
Presidency of the newly formed Republican party, and who was 
also a United States senator, and an explorer of some ability, once 
came near starving on the western plains. In his biography by 
his daughter, the following incident is told. It is abbreviated 
here. 

After the escape from danger, he wrote in his diary an account 
of the facts and felt relief at the thought that his wife would be 
glad to know of his safety. In Washington, D. C, his wife had 
suddenly been seized with foreboding and despondency about him 
and could not sleep, eat, nor go into company on account of her 
fears. She had the feeling that he was starving. This weight of 
fear, however, was lifted as suddenly as it had come. Her sister 
Susie and others had returned from a wedding and they sat down by 
the fire. Mrs. Fremont went out to get some wood; and, as she 
knelt to pick up a stick, she felt an invisible hand on her shoulder and 
heard the laughing voice of her husband whisper her name, 
" Jessie." There was no sound. When she came back to the 
others her sister Susie uttered a scream and fell on the rug. Her 
cousin asked Mrs. Fremont what she had seen, and she explained 
that she had seen nothing but had heard her husband tell her to 
keep still until he could scare Susie. Peace of mind came to the 
wife instantly. When General Fremont returned home it was 
found that the wife's fears coincided with the time he was starving 
in the desert and his diary showed that at the very time he was 



EXPERIENCES OF WELL-KNOWN PERSONS 139 

writing the journal note of his escape and happiness his wife had 
her experience and lost her anxiety. 

Henry Wikoff, a lawyer, who traveled much and who at one 
time was employed by Lord Palmerston as a secret agent, tells a 
detailed story of the apparition of his deceased cousin, which lin- 
gered for two hours in spite of repeated efforts during that time 
to dispel the " hallucination," as he regarded it. He does not 
remark any coincidence in it, naturally enough, since he thought it 
an unaccountable delusion. 

Dean Hole, of Rochester, England, tells in his memoirs some 
personal experiences and some incidents which came to him from 
others. He wanted information which only one man could give 
him, and that man was dead. Dean Hole, however, saw him in 
a vision, and his answer to Dean Hole's question told the latter 
all he wanted to know. He told the incident to his solicitor and 
the latter mentioned a similar experience of his own : a dream in 
which his father appeared to him and conveyed desired informa- 
tion. 

These incidents, taken alone, have no evidential values, but sim- 
ilar experiences are well authenticated and can be shown to have 
evidential importance. We have quoted the foregoing instances 
not for their scientific value, but simply for the unimpeachable 
character of the witnesses. We require only better credentials in 
the way of record at the time and more striking incidents of detail 
to arouse scientific interest. 



1 



CHAPTER XII 
SPONTANEOUS INCIDENTS 

^ HE only spontaneous incidents which can serve as evidence 
of survival are apparitions. And among these the pen- 
chant for telepathy as an explanation of so many types of 
coincidences requires us to select only phantasms of the dead. As 
we have already seen, phantasms of the living and the dying cannot 
be quoted as evidence, at least as evidence free from the suspicion of 
telepathy. We are therefore obliged to select apparitions which 
cannot so easily be referred to that process. Some of them at least, 
if not all of them, may be exposed to simpler objections than is telep- 
athy; but I am sure that, if telepathy has supplanted chance coinci- 
dence and subjective casual hallucination as an explanation for phan- 
tasms of the living and of the dying, these latter explanations will not 
any more easily apply to certain phantasms of the dead. We shall 
suppose here that chance coincidences and subjective hallucinations 
have been excluded from the collection with sufficient care; the re- 
maining experiences are impressive collectively, and, so far as 
they go, are suggestively evidential. We resort to experiment for 
more conclusive testimony. 

^ In taking up apparitions, however, as preliminary evidence for 
survival, I shall first select from a special type that are perhaps 
more impressive than the others and that have more or less cor- 
roborative support. I refer to visions of the dying. They are pe- 
culiarly free from the ordinary objections to apparitions, though 
they may have to contend with other difficulties in the way of proof. 
They have the advantage of being identified by the dying person 
at the outset, and are not exposed to the suspicion of being ordi- 
nary illusions caused by some casual stimulus. Chance coincidence 
may account for some of them, but hallucination and illusion due 
to sensory stimuli are less applicable to them than to many other 

140 



SPONTANEOUS INCIDENTS 141 

types of apparition. Besides, they are numerous enough to de- 
serve special consideration. 

The first examples of visions of the dying are taken from the 
first number of the " Journal "of the American Society. 

The first of this group was dictated to me by the two persons who 
knew the facts and was taken down verbatim. Both are intelligent 
and trustworthy witnesses, no more liable to errors in such matters 
than all of us. It involved circumstances which give peculiar value 
to the incident, as the story itself will show. I quote the narrative 
as I took it down. 

" Four or five weeks before my son's death Mrs. S was with me 

— she was my friend and a psychic — and a message was given me that 
little Bright Eyes (control) would be with my son who was then ill with 
cancer. The night before his death he complained that there was a 
little girl about his bed and asked who it was. This was at Muskoka, i6o 

miles north of Toronto. He had not known what Mrs. S had told 

me. Just before his death, about five minutes, he roused, called his nurse 
for a drink of water, and said clearly : ' I think they are taking me.' 

Afterward seeing the possible significance of this I wrote to Miss A 

and asked her to see Mrs. S and try to find why the word ' they ' was 

used, underscoring it in the letter, as I always supposed the boy's father 

would be with him at death. Miss A went to see Mrs. S , and 

did not mention the letter. When I saw Mrs. S more than a week later 

we were having a sitting and Guthrie, my son, came and told me how he 
died. He said he was lying on the bed and felt he was being lifted out 
of his body and at that point all pain left. His first impulse was to get 
back into his body, but he was being drawn away. He was taken up into 
a cloud and he seemed to be a part of it. His feeling was that he was 
being taken by invisible hands into rarified air that was so deUghtful. He 
spoke of his freedom from pain and said that he saw his father beyond." 

The intimate friendship of Mrs. S with Mrs. G , the 

mother of the boy, makes it possible to suppose that hints or sug- 
gestions may have been unconsciously conveyed to the boy before 
his death or that something was said at the experiment which might 
deprive the incidents of that importance which they superficially 
seem to have. The boy's experience of a strange girl at his bed- 
side, and the allusion to the plural of the pronoun are quite possibly 
correct accounts of the facts. A record of the later sitting would be 
necessary to be assured that the allusion to the father was not in 
response to a suggestion. 



142 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

I quote next a well authenticated instance on the authority of 
Dr. Minot J. Savage. He records it in his '* Psychic Facts and 
Theories." He also told me personally of the facts and gave me 
the names and addresses of the persons on whose authority he tells 
the incidents. I am not permitted to mention them; but the story 
is as follows : 

" In a neighboring city were two little girls, Jennie and Edith, one 
about eight years of age, and the other but a Httle older. They were 
schoolmates and intimate friends. In June, 1889, both were taken ill of 
diphtheria. At noon on Wednesday, Jennie died. Then the parents of 
Edith, and her physician as well, took particular pains to keep from her 
the fact that her little playmate was gone. They feared the effect of the 
knowledge on her own condition. To prove that they succeeded and 
that she did not know, it may be mentioned that on Saturday, June 8, at 
noon, just before she became unconscious of all that was passing about 
her, she selected two of her photographs to be sent to Jennie, and also told 
her attendants to bid her good-by. 

" She died at half-past six o'clock on the evening of Saturday, June 8. 
She had roused and bidden her friends good-by, and was talking of dying, 
and seemed to have no fear. She appeared to see one and another of the 
friends she knew were dead. So far it was like the common cases. But 
now suddenly, and with every appearance of surprise, she turned to her 
father, and exclaimed, ' Why, papa, I am going to take Jennie with me ! ' 
Then she added, ' Why, papa ! Why, papa ! You did not tell me that 
Jennie was here ! ' And immediately she reached out her arms as if in 
welcome, and said, * O, Jennie, I 'm so glad you are here.' '* 

As Dr. Savage remarks in connection with the story, it is not 
so easy to account for this incident by the ordinary theory of 
hallucination. We have to suppose a casual coincidence at the 
same time, and while we should have to suppose this for any isolated 
case like the present, the multiplication of cases, with proper cre- 
dentials, would suggest some other explanation. 

I shall turn next to two instances which are associated with the 
experiments and records of Mrs. Piper. Both present the allega- 
tion of death-bed apparitions, and give statements through Mrs. 
Piper purporting to be communications from the deceased, show- 
ing a coincidence with what was otherwise known or alleged to 
have taken place at the crisis of death. The records in these cases 
are unusually good, having been made by Dr. Richard Hodgson. I 
quote his reports. The first instance is the experience of a man 



SPONTANEOUS INCIDENTS 143 

who gives only initials for his name, but was well known to Dr. 
Hodgson. It occurred at a sitting with Mrs. Piper. 

"About the end of March of last year (1888) I made her (Mrs. Piper) 
a visit — having been in the habit of doing so, since early in February, 
about once a fortnight. She told me that the death of a near relative 
of mine would occur in about six weeks, from which I should realize 
some pecuniary advantages. I naturally thought of my father, who was 
in advanced years, and whose description Mrs. Piper had given me very 
accurately some week or two previously. She had not spoken of him as 
my father, but merely as a person nearly connected with me. I asked her 
at this sitting whether this person was the one who would die, but she de- 
clined to state anything more clearly to me. My wife, to whom I was 
then engaged, went to see Mrs. Piper a few days afterward, and she told 
her (my wife) that my father would die in a few weeks. 

About the middle of May my father died very suddenly in London from 
heart failure, when he was recovering from a very slight attack of bron- 
chitis, and the very day that his doctor had pronounced him out of danger. 
Previous to this Mrs. Piper (as Dr. Phinuit) had told me that she would 
endeavor to influence my father about certain matters connected with his 
will before he died. Two days after I received the cable announcing his 
death my wife and I went to see Mrs. Piper, and she (Phinuit) spoke of 
his presence, and his sudden arrival in the spirit world, and said that he 
(Dr. Phinuit) had endeavored to persuade him in these matters while my 
father was sick. Dr. Phinuit told me the state of the will, and described 
the principal executor, and said that he (the executor) would make a 
certain disposition in my favor, subject to the consent of the other two 
executors when I got to London, England. Three weeks afterward I ar- 
rived in London; found the principal executor to be the man Dr. Phinuit 
had described. The will went materially as he (Dr. Phinuit) had stated. 
The disposition was made in my favor, and my sister, who was chiefly 
at my father's bedside the last three days of his life, told me he had repeat- 
edly complained of the presence of an old man at the foot of his bed, who 
annoyed him by discussing his private affairs." 

The reader will remark that the incident is associated with a 
prediction, but that is not the subject under observation at present. 
The chief point of interest is, that the prediction refers to a will 
affecting private business matters, that the sister reported a num- 
ber of visions or apparitions at the man's death-bed, and that after 
his death, apparently not known to Mrs. Piper, the statement was 
made by Phinuit that he had influenced or tried to persuade the man 
in reference to these matters. The coincidence is unmistakable and 
the cause is suggested by the very nature of the phenomena and 
the conditions under which they occurred. But we need a large mass 



144 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

of such incidents to give the hypothesis something Hke scientific 
proof. 

The next case is a most important one. It is connected with an 
experiment by Dr. Hodgson with Mrs. Piper, and came as an ac- 
cidental feature of the sitting. The account is associated in his 
report with incidents quoted by him in explanation of the diffi- 
culty and confusion accompanying real or alleged communications 
from the dead. It will be useful to quote the report on that point 
before narrating the incident itself, as the circumstances associated 
with the facts are important to the understanding of the case, while 
they also suggest a view of the phenomena which may explain the 
rarity of them. 

" That persons ' just deceased,' " says Dr. Hodgson, " should be ex- 
tremely confused and unable to communicate directly, or even at all, seems 
perfectly natural after the shock and wrench of death. Thus in the case 
of Hart, he was unable to write the second day after death. In an- 
other case a friend of mine, whom I may call D., wrote, with what appeared 
to be much difficulty, his name and the words, ' I am all right now. 
Adieu,' within two or three days of his death. In another case, F., a 
near relative of Madame Elisa, was unable to write on the morning after 
his death. On the second day after, when a stranger was present with me 
for a sitting, he wrote two or three sentences, saying, ' I am toO' weak 
to articulate clearly,' and not many days later he wrote fairly well and 
clearly, and dictated to Madame Elisa (deceased), as amanuensis, an 
account of his feelings at finding himself in his new surroundings." 

In a footnote Dr. Hodgson adds an account of what this Madame 
Elisa communicated regarding the man. I quote this in full. Re- 
ferring to this F. and Madame Elisa, he says : 

" The notice of his death was in a Boston paper, and I happened to see it 
on my way to the sitting. The first writing of the sitting came from 
Madame Elisa, without my expecting it. She wrote clearly and strongly, 
explaining that F. was there with her, but unable to speak directly, that 
she wished to give me an account of how she had helped F. to reach 
her. She said that she had been present at his death-bed, and had spoken 
to him, and she repeated what she had said, an unusual form of expres- 
sion, and indicated that he had heard and recognized her. This was con- 
firmed in detail in the only way possible at the time, by a very intimate 
friend of Madame Elisa and myself, and also of the nearest surviving 
relative of F. I showed my friend the account of the sitting, and to this 
friend a day or two later, the relative, who was present at the death- 
bed, stated spontaneously that F., when dying, said that he saw Madame 



SPONTANEOUS INCIDENTS 145 

Elisa, who w^s speaking to him, and he repeated what she was saying. The 
expression so repeated, which the relative quoted to my friend, was that 
which I had received from Madame Elisa through Mrs. Piper's trance, 
when the death-bed incident was of course entirely unknown to me." 

The apparent significance of such a coincidence is evident, and 
its value is much enhanced by the cross reference involved in the 
work of Dr. Hodgson. The following incidents are perhaps less 
evidential, but may be trusted as actual events. 

The next case is a very important one, because the percipient did 
not know that his teacher was dead. Unfortunately the mother 
took an unreasonable position in regard to narrating the facts. 
The state of mind of religious people on such a matter is incom- 
prehensible, except on the ground that they take a selfish view of 
the question of survival after death. This determination not to 
help others in such matters only tends to confirm the skeptic's judg- 
ment both that there is no evidence for the belief and that the be- 
lievers in it have only a selfish interest in a future life. Un- 
fortunately this is too often true. In the present instance we have 
the statement of another witness and though it is not as complete as 
we might wish, because she had not appreciated the value of the 
incident, the refusal of the mother to testify is a negative con- 
firmation of the facts. 

February 4, 1907. 
" Dr. James H. Hyslop, 
" Dear Doctor : — 

" I am on the track of a very strange circumstance that happened in 
the family of a cousin of mine living in Greeley, Colorado. 

" It seems their child was dying and a very short time before death 
told h.is mother that the teacher (public school teacher) was in the room. 
The child's mind, so far as they could tell, was clear. The strange part is 
that a very short time before, perhaps an hour or so, the teacher had sud- 
denly died. Her death was unlooked for and the child knew nothing 
of it, and so far as I can learn none of those with the child knew of 
teacher's death. Would such a circumstance properly vouched for be 
of any value ? I find it very hard to persuade people to relate or tell about 
such things. This family above mentioned are worthy people, the mother 
being for years a teacher in the Greeley, Colorado, schools. 

" Yours truly, 

''Dr. H. L. Coleman." 

I wrote to Dr. Coleman asking him to make an effort to secure 



146 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

the lady's statement of the facts, for obvious reasons, and the fol- 
lowing is his reply after making the attempt : 

" March 15, 1907. 
" Dr. James H. Hyslop. 
"My Dear Sir: — 

" I am sorry to inform you that I have resorted to every means to 
obtain from the mother of the child a full account of the vision, but she 
absolutely refuses to give me any information. She belongs to the class 
of people who regard such things as Psychical Research as unholy and 
wrong, though in other matters she is a woman of education and standing 
in society. She is strictly orthodox (a Methodist) and no influence my- 
self or any of my friends can have on her will in any way change her 
views. I feel sure the case was one of great value. A cousin who talked 
to her about the matter told me as follows: The day before the little boy 
died he and his mother and the nurse were alone together in the room. 
The child said his Sunday school teacher was in the room with them, told 
how she was dressed, etc. At the time this took place the teacher, who had 
suddenly died, was- lying in her casket. The child had not been informed 
of her death. The child talked to her much as one would talk to himself. 
The boy was regarded as very bright and was highly regarded by his 
Sunday school teacher. The child was about eight or ten years old. I 
will take the liberty to send you part O'f the letter from one of the cousins 
who has been trying to help me find out about the case. Part of the letter 
is personal, which you will please pardon, as I can send you nothing of 
value for the S. P. R., as it all came in. too much round about way ; I will 
return the stamp you sent me. If later I can find out anything more or 
introduce you into the case will do so, but can't now. 

" Yours truly, 

" Dr. H. L. Coleman." 

" I will try to answer the question you asked as near as I can ; had I 
been talking to her myself I could have remembered it and wrote it down, 
but Annie didn't pay much attention to it. 

" The child saw his teacher the day before he died ; he did not know 
she was dead ; he saw her soon after her death ; he .described the way she 
was dressed as she lay in her coffin. No one said anything to him about 
it. He talked as if talking to himself. No one saw child except the 
mother and nurse. This child was about eight years old and very bright; 
and a pet of his teacher. Now, Harry, I have written about all Annie 
can tell me and you will have to content yourself with this. If I get to 
see Clara this coming June I will talk to her myself. 

" Your cousin, 

" Elsie." ' 

The following incident was not dated in the informant's reply, 
and, as it was not a new: incident, its interest has to rest on the 



'%*, 



SPONTANEOUS INCIDENTS 147 

authority of the informant. He was one of the ablest physicians 
in his city and himself attached some value to the facts, though not 
believing in a spiritistic hypothesis. The case must stand for what 
it is worth. 



"Buffalo, N. Y., [June, 1908]. 

" My Dear Mr. Hyslop : — 

I have not been entirely inattentive to your letter of May, though your 
recent note gave my purpose a needed jog. 

" Mrs. H has asked me to lay the following facts and circum- 
stances before you : — 

" Her brother died in- 1876, at the age of twenty-one, after an illness 
whose en-tire course extended intermittently over several years. His grand- 
father had died when he was a small boy of about five. 

" The grandfather's memory was dear to his mother and her family, but 
during this brother's illness, and especially toward the last when he knew 
he was dying, it is said that the grandfather's memory was not especially 
recalled. 

" About seven in the evening, after he had been sinking and was 
supposed to be dying, the family being gathered about him, he opened 
his eyes and said " Grandfather," and looked as though he saw some one 
whom he addressed thus. He lingered through the night and died the next 
morning early. 

" Sa long a time has elapsed that more detailed incidents are not avail- 
able, and would scarcely be reliable, I fancy. 

" An aunt of Mrs. H died a few years after the death of her sister, 

Mrs. H 's mother. As she was dying she in the same manner as though 

recognizing some one dear to her, said ' Sis ' — a title she was accustomed 
to giving her sister. The bystanders remarked the similarity to the man- 
ner and speech of the long-time dead brother of Mrs. H . 

" So far as these incidents are of service you are welcome to make 
use of them without name, unless necessary for verification of their 
truthfulness. 

"With kind regards I am, 

" Cordially yours, 

" Frank Whitehill H ." 

The following incident came from one of my former students, 
now a lawyer. His special interest in the matter was not awakened 
until he lost his wife. At my request he reported the present in- 
cident, after narrating it to me personally. The gentleman who 
might have corroborated it in writing was reluctant to do so, 
though he confirmed it viz/a voce. 



148 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

" March 3, 1908. 
" Dear Professor: — 

'' I wish to give you the written account which you asked for of my 
observation when my wife died ; she was a very spiritual girl and I always 
imagined in consequence that she did not have a very strong grip on life 
and was ready — psychologically and not voluntarily — to relinquish her 
hold. She was the youngest of a large family and was the particular pet 
of her father when a girl. Both her parents had been dead about ten 
years. She was not in the habit of mentioning her parents particularly, and 
all her interests were centered in her home. The last thing she said to me 
before she died was that she complained of being sleepy and from then on 
to the end, some two hours, she was not very conscious, as far as we could 
see, of her surroundings. When she was in the last struggle she called 
out ' Mama ' once or twice, and later ' Papa ! Papa ! take me up, they are 
killing me' (I remember this distinctly.) Shortly afterwards, some ten 
minutes, she passed away. 

" Considering that she did not frequently speak of her parents, that at 
and shortly prior to her death she was too weak to speak tO' me, but never- 
theless called out in a loud voice just as she was passing away, the incident 
is interesting as bearing upon the mental states at such transitional 
periods. 

" Yours faithfully, 

" Harrison Clark, Jr.'' 

The following incidents explain themselves; one of them is espe- 
cially interesting because it is associated with a death vision by 
the lady herself of the same personality that had appeared as a 
warning of the death of others. That is, we have an ordinary 
apparition premonitory of the death of others and also of the sub- 
ject herself when she died, giving a double interest to the facts and 
showing that the two types must have the same explanation. 

" Milwaukee, Wisconsin, March 18, 1907. 
" Dr. James H. Hyslop. 
" Dear Sir :— 

" My mother used to say that whenever there was about to occur the 
death of a friend or relative, she saw her own mother standing beside her 
and looking at her. The first time that I knew of this vision of hers was 
when I was a girl of about twelve. My mother's most intimate friend, 
outside her own family, was dangerously ill. In the evening mother came 
from the friend's house and coming into my room got into bed with me. 
When I awoke in the morning mother was sitting on the edge of the bed 
in a brown study. I spoke to her and she roused herself and said: 'I 
fear Mrs. F is no more.' I asked her why she said that and she re- 
plied: ' Mother appeared to me just now.' Then she explained her belief 
that grandmother always appeared to her before the death of anyone she 



SPONTANEOUS INCIDENTS 149 

loved, and added : * As I opened my eyes this morning, lying there beside 
you, I saw mother standing looking over the foot-board of the bed at me, 
very intently.' 

" In less than an hour my aunt came up from Mrs. F.'s to say that she 
had passed away early in the morning. 

" I do not distinctly recall any other instance of this hallucination of 
hers until the morning before her own death, about fifteen years later. 
She had had an attack of pneumonia, but the doctor had said that she was 
better and I was feeling much easier about her. I was taking care of her 
alone that night. About four in the morning, when I went up to the 
bed to give her medicine or stimulant — I have forgotten which — she 
aroused from a light slumber, looked up at me very keenly and said: 
* Mother has just been with me.' The significance of it flashed over me 
at once and I could hardly control myself enough to give her the medicine 
I had in my hand. I went into the other room at once to call father to 
go for the doctor. Before he could arrive she had sunk into a stupor, and 
passed away in a few" hours. Those were the last conscious words, or 
rather I should say intelligible words that she ever spoke to me. They 
were spoken in as clear and distinct a voice as she ever used. 

" She died of heart failure, a reaction from pneumonia. My grand- 
mother died a month before I was born. 

"Another incident that I have only by hearsay was this: My mother 
told me that her father, on his death-bed, and when they thought he was 
just about gone, suddenly raised a little from his pillow, opened his eyes 
wide and called out in a glad, clear tone : ' Why, Dada ! ' This was the 
name of his wife's brother with whom, as a young man, he had been very 
intimate, and who had been dead for many years." 

Instances of the same kind are much more numerous than those 
we have quoted, though they are not recorded as they should have 
been. One good instance, which happened in the family of Mr. 
James G. Blaine, mentioned in the preceding chapter, should have 
been recorded in detail. But the witnesses of it seem not to have 
appreciated its scientific interest. Probably the majority of sim- 
ilar incidents escape all but the immediate witnesses and generally 
they are regarded as too personal for scientific notice. They are 
not quoted here as of themselves satisfactory scientific proof of 
survival, though in sufficient numbers and properly observed they 
might be adequate even to that purpose. They at least suggest 
what other methods might establish or corroborate, and are so 
free from objections obtrusive in other phenomena that they de- 
serve a first place among spontaneous incidents in favor of sur- 
vival. 



150 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

I next take up another type of apparition which requires spe- 
cially good credentials to escape the suspicion of casual hallucina- 
tion. But, as chance has been excluded from the explanation even 
of phantasms of the living, we may illustrate a type from whose 
interpretation telepathy is also excluded, though, apparently at least, 
they are not so common as phantasms of the living, including those 
of dying persons. 

Phantasms of the dead are not easily classified as examples of 
telepathy. We cannot specify the agent without either unwar- 
rantably extending the telepathy or making the deceased person 
the agent. The latter assumes that the facts are evidence of sur- 
vival ; and we may take such instances as spontaneous evidence for 
survival, though we may not regard this evidence as conclusive 
unless the facts become numerous enough and well enough estab- 
lished to be on the same level as experimental phenomena. 

The first report of the English Com^mittee on Haunted Houses 
mentions a number of good instances. One of them involves ex- 
periences by two persons.-^ 

" In the early spring of 1852, Mr. X. Z. went to reside in a large old 
house near C . Mr. X. Z. only occupied part of the house, the re- 
mainder being inhabited by a friend of his own, Mr. G , and some pupils. 

Mr. G had occupied the house about a year before Mr. X. Z.'s arrival; 

and two servants had, in that interval, given him warning, on account of 
strange noises which they had heard. The house, which is a large one, 
was let at an extremely low rent. 

" On the night of the 22nd of September, 1852, at about i a. m. Mr. 
X. Z. went up to his bedroom. The house was in complete darkness, 
and he took no candle with him; but on opening a door which led into 
the passage where his room was situated, he found the whole passage filled 
with light. The light was white like daylight, or electric light, and brighter 
than moonlight. At first Mr. X. Z. was dazzled by the light, but when his 
eyes became used to it he saw, standing at the end of the passage, about 
thirty-five feet from him, an old man in a figured dressing-gown. The 
face of this old man, which Mr. X. Z. saw quite clearly, was most hideous; 
so evil was it that both expression and features were firmly imprinted on 
his memory. As Mr. X. Z. was still looking, figure and light both van- 
ished, and left him in pitch darkness. Mr. X. Z. did not, at that time, be- 
lieve in ghosts, and his first thought was (he had lately read Brewster's 
* Natural Magic,' and had been much impressed with the striking cases 
of spectral illusion recorded in that work) that he was the subject of a 

1 " Proceedings," English S. P. R., Vol. I, p. 106. 



SPONTANEOUS INCIDENTS 151 

hallucination. He did not feel at all frightened, but resolved to take a 
dose of physic in the morning. The next day, however, remembering the 
tales told by the two servants who had left, he made inquiries in the vil- 
lage as to the past history of the house. At first he could find out nothing, 
but finally an old lawyer told him that he had heard that the grandfather 
of the present owner of the house had strangled his wiie and then cut his 
own throat, on the very spot where Mr. X. Z. had seen the figure. The 
lawyer was unable to give the exact date of this occurrence, but Mr. X. Z. 
consulted the parish register, and found the two deaths recorded as having 
taken place on the 22nd September, 179 — (the precise year he could not now 
(1882) remember). The lawyer added he had heard that the old man was 
in the habit of walking about the house in a figured dressing-gown, and had 
the reputation of being half an imbecile. 

" On the 22nd September, 1853, a friend of Mr. G 's arrived to make 

a short stay. He came down to breakfast the following morning, looking 
very pale, and announced his intention of terminating his visit immedi- 
ately. Mr. G rather angrily insisted on knowing the reason of his 

sudden departure ; and the young man, when pressed, reluctantly explained 
that he had been kept awake all night by the sound of cryings and groan- 
ings, blasphemous oaths, and cries of despair. The door of his bedroom 
opened on to the spot where the murderer had committed suicide ; and it 
was in the bedroom which he had occupied that the murder had been com- 
mitted. In 1856, Mr. X. Z. and his friend had occasion to call on their land- 
lord, who lived in London. On being shown into the room, Mr. X. Z. at 
once recognized a picture above the mantel-piece as being that of the 
figure which he had seen. The portrait, however, had been taken when 
the man was younger, and the expression was not so hideous. He called 

Mr. G 's attention to the painting, saying : ' That is the man whom 

I saw.' 

" The landlord, on being asked whom the portrait represented, replied 
that it was the portrait of his grandfather, adding that he had been no 
credit to the family." 

The incident lacks nothing in dramatic interest, but is old, though 
well authenticated. It would take many such to enforce a conclu- 
sion; and only the certification of a large number of more recent 
cases, such as those which *' Phantasms of the Living " presents, 
could justify the use of such an incident for illustration. But there 
are similar instances. 

In a paper by Mrs. Sidgwick on " Phantasms of the Dead " ^ an 
incident is recorded, which will have to be abbreviated. Its interest 
lies in the unconscious testimony of a child to an experience whose 
meaning he did not know. 

1 " Proceedings," English S. P. R., Vol. Ill, p. 87. 



152 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

A man died in 1875, leaving a widow and six children. The three eldest 
children were admitted to an orphanage. Three years afterwards the 
widow died, and then the three remaining children were admitted to the 
Orphanage. Some visitors came one day; and, as the place was full, the 
warden took a bed in the little ones' dormitory. In the night he suddenly 
awoke and saw a soft light in the room. He saw that it was not the gas 
light from the hall, and, turning round, he saw a wonderful vision. Over 
the second bed from his, and on the same side of the room, there was float- 
ing a small cloud of light, forming a halo of the brightness of the moon 
on an ordinary moonlight night. In this bed slept the youngest of the 
six children. The warden took the trouble to note that he was not dream- 
ing, but went to sleep again. In the morning, while dressing, this youngest 
child looked at the warden with an extraordinary expression, and said: 

"Oh, Mr. Jupp, my mother came to me last night. Did you see her?" 
The warden did not answer the child, though astonished at the statement, 
and nothing more was said about it. 

This is practically a case of shared experience, as two persons 
had an experience at approximately the same time. The following 
is from the same list by Mrs. Sidgwick. It was received from Mrs. 
Windridge, whose address was given in the account. 

" November 9, 1882. 

" About the year 1869, I was much interested in a poor woman who 
was dying in my neighborhood. I used to visit her frequently, until my 
friends prevented me from going any more, as the excitement rendered 
me ill. Eventually, when she died, they concealed the fact from me for 
some days. 

" I was taking my little boy, three years old, up to bed one evening. It 
was dusk; and, when half-way up the first flight of stairs, I distinctly felt 
a pressure and a rustling of a dress at my side, as if a woman had brushed 
past me. There was no one there. On the second flight the pressure was 
repeated, but more unmistakably. The occurrence made me so nervous 
that, having put the boy to bed, I decided to remain with him until my hus- 
band came in. I accordingly lay down on the bed, facing him. 

*' Suddenly the boy started up. ' Oh, mother, there is a lady standing 
behind you ! ' At the same moment I felt a pressure which I knew to be 
that of my friend. I dared not look round. 

" When my husband returned, I heard for the first time that my friend 
had died three days before." 

Again the experience was shared, and bears the marks of pur- 
pose. The next has a human interest and is from the same col- 
lection. It was recorded by the Rev. C. C. Wambey. 

" During my residence in B. C, as curate in charge, it was my custom 
in the summer evenings to walk over the neighboring downs. 



SPONTANEOUS INCIDENTS 153 

" On the evening of Sunday, August 20, 1874, I was strolling on the 
downs skirting Marlcombe Hill, composing a congratulatory letter, which 
I proposed to write and post to my very dear friend W., so that he might 
have it on his birthday, the twenty-second, when I heard a voice saying, 
' What, write to a dead man ; write to a dead man ! ' I turned sharply 
round, fully expecting to see some one close behind me. There was no 
one. Treating the matter as an illusion, I went on with my composition. 
A second time I heard the same voice, saying, more loudly than before, 
* What, write to a dead man ; write to a dead man ! ' Again I turned round. 
I was alone, at least bodily. I now fully understood the meaning of that 
voice; it was no illusion. 

" Notwithstanding this, I sent the proposed letter, and in reply received 
from Mrs. W. the sad, but to me not unexpected, intelligence that her hus- 
band was dead." 

Here is another brief instance from the same collection; it was 
the only experience of Mrs. Haly, who reported it. 

" On waking in broad daylight, I saw, like a shadowed reflection, a \ery 
long coffin stretching quite across the ceiling of my room, and as I lay 
gazing at it, and wondering at its length and whose death it could fore- 
shadow, my eyes fell on a shadowy figure of an absent nephew, with his 
back towards me, searching, as it were, in my book-shelf. That morning's 
post brought the news of his death in Australia. He was six foot two or 
three inches in height, and a book, taken from that very bookcase, had been 
my last present to him on his leaving England. 

The next instance from the same list, a long one, is also re- 
ported by a clergyman. The writer was the Rev. Gerrard Lewis, 
of St. Paul's Vicarage, Margate. The account was given in a 
letter to Mr. Podmore. The story had been published in " Tem- 
ple Bar.'^ 

" I have nothing to add to my ' true ghost story ' in ' Temple Bar.' As 
to dates, he died on Thursday, September 19, 1866. I saw his appearance 
on Sunday, September 22, and officiated at his funeral on Wednesday, Sep- 
tember 25. 

" My wife's mother had in her service a coachman named P., with one 
son, James Henry P., who had been brought up by friends at a distance, 
and was apprenticed to a trade in London. His father had only twice 
casually mentioned him to me, and he had almost entirely slipped out of my 
mind, for, with a large seaside parish on my hands, of which I was curate, 
my time and attention were fully taken up with matters nearer home. I 
mention this, lest in the course of the following story my readers should 
chance to think that a deep impression, previously made on my own mind, 
had predisposed me to see what I saw, and afterwards to regard it in 
a supernatural light. I cannot, therefore, too emphatically repeat that 



154 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

I knew next to nothing about James Henry P., my friend's son; that 
I had never seen him; and seldom, if ever, thought of him at all. 

" It was a hot and bright afternoon in Summer, and, as if it were 
only yesterday, I remember perfectly well walking down the broad 
bright street in the broad bright afternoon. I had to pass the house 
of P. I remarked indeed that all his window blinds were drawn care- 
fully down, as if to screen his furniture, of which his wife was inordi- 
nately proud, from the despoiling blaze of the afternoon sun. I smiled 
inwardly at the thought. I then left the road, stepped up on the side 
pavement, and looked over the area rails into the front court below. 
A young man, dressed in dark clothes, and without a hat, and apparently 
about twenty years of age, was standing at the door beneath the front 
steps. On the instant, from his likeness to my friend P., I seemed to 
recognize his son. We both stood and looked very hard at each other. 
Suddenly, however, he advanced to that part of the area which was 
immediately below where I was standing, fixed on me a wide, dilated, 
winkless sort of stare, and halted. The desire to speak was evidently 
legible on his face, though nothing audible escaped from his lips. But 
his eyes spoke; every feature in his countenance spoke, spoke, as it 
were, a silent language, in which reproach and pain seemed equally 
intermingled. At first I was startled; then I began to feel angry. 
'Why,' I said to myself, 'does he look at me in that manner?' At 
last, annoyance prevailing over surprise, I turned away with the half- 
muttered thought : ' He certainly knows me by sight as a friend of 
ihis father, and yet has not the civihty to salute me. I will call on 
the first opportunity and ask his reason for such behavior.' I then 
pursued my way and thought no more of what had just occurred. 

" On Wednesday it was my turn to officiate at the local cemetery. On 
my asking who was to be buried, I was told that it was a young man 
from my quarter of the town, who had died of consumption. I cannot 
give the reason, but immediately I felt startled and ill at ease. It was 
not that I had the least suspicion that anything extraordinary was about 
to happen. I had quite forgotten young P. The feeling which I think 
was uppermost in my mind was annoyance at the fact that anyone 
should have died of such a slow disease in my parish, but without my 
knowledge. I asked without delay for the registrar's certificate. My 
eyes fell on the words, 'James Henry P., aged twenty-one years.' I 
/ could scarcely believe my own senses. 

" I lost but little time before calling on P. and his wife. I found the 
latter at home, and what she had to say only made me more uncomfortable 
still. James Henry P. bore such a close resemblance to his father that 
all who saw him remarked on the striking likeness. In addition to this, 
during the last three months of his life, which he spent under his father's 
roof, he had often wondered that I did not come to see him. His longing 
for an interview with me had been most intense ; and every time he saw me 
pass the house without going in he had both felt and expressed a keen dis- 
appointment. In fact, he died terribly in earnest, wishing in vain to 
the last that 1 would come. That thought pierced nje through and 



SPONTANEOUS INCIDENTS 155 

through. I had not gone to him, but he had come to me. And yet I 
would have gone, if I had but known. I blame the doctor for not telling 
me; I blame the parents for not sending for me; and with that awful 
look he gave me in my remembrance, I blame myself, though I cannot 
tell why. 

" James Henry P. had died on the Thursday before the Sunday on which 
I had seen him. He had died, too, in the front room, on a level with the 
area, into which its window opened. He had also lain there till the 
Wednesday following, awaiting burial. His corpse then was lying in 
that very room on that very Sunday, and at the very moment, too, when 
I had seen his living likeness, as it were, in the area outside. Nobody, 
I found, had passed through the area that day; the door there had been 
locked and unused all the Sunday. The very milkman, the only person 
who called, had come by the front steps to the house; and P. and his 
wife were the only inmates at the time." 

Another long case follows this, and tells of the appearance of 
a young man, to say that he did not do what he was accused of. 
Inquiry showed that he had been accused of committing suicide. 
Later it was found that the accusation was not true. Another 
represents two persons seeing a phantasm of the same person 
whose relation to the place was wholly unknown to them, though 
afterwards verified. 

Mr. Myers quotes from the *' Census of Hallucinations," Vol- 
ume X of the English '' Proceedings," a case of which that report 
says: "Unless we accept the hypothesis of chance coincidence, 
the evidence for the agency of the dead is certainly strong, be- 
cause any other explanation compatible with the veracity of the 
narrators requires a very complicated and improbable hypothe- 
sis." The following is the narrative [p. 383] : 

" Rio DE Janeiro, March 12, 1892. 

[After relating his first meeting, in June, 1886, with " Deolinda," a 
child whom he had found in ^great poverty and had taken charge of, and 
her death from consumption shortly afterwards, Sefior Cabral continues : — ] 

" Some months passed, and my family (which now included my wife's 
other sister, Amelia) went to stay at a plantation belonging to friends. 
I escorted them thither, and returned to attend to my obligations in the 
city. In order not to be alone, I accepted the invitation of my friend, 
Barboza de Andrade, and went to live with him in S. Christovam. One 
■month afterwards, a sister of Barboza's, who was ill, came into his house. 
She grew daily worse, and after the lapse of a few months had sunk so 
low that we had to sit up with her at night. 

" One night when I had taken my turn at nursing, I felt sleepy, and 



156 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

went to lie down. Two sisters, Donnas Anna Ignez Dias Fortes and 
Feliciana Dias (now deceased), took my place. I had made their ac- 
quaintance but a few days before. After stretching myself on the bed, 
I was filled with a feeling of unbounded joy. I was happy, and could 
not imagine what was the cause of my happiness. I had a sensation 
as if some one were holding my head and placing something round it. 

" Astonished at my experience, I called to the ladies who were watch- 
ing in the next room, and Donna Feliciana, though from the place where 
she was seated she could not see me, answered me back, ' I see at your 
bedside a spirit child clothed in white. She places on your head a crown 
of roses. She says her name is Deolinda, and she comes to thank you 
for the kindness and charity with which you behaved to her.' I was 
amazed at such a declaration, for that very day was the anniversary 
of Deolinda's death, and neither I nor any other person in the house 
had recollected this. Besides, I had never spoken on the subject. 

" Ulysses Cabral." 

The two ladies write that they knew nothing of the story of 
Deolinda and confirm the narrative as told. The incident is 
especially interesting as involving a tactual phantasm by Sefior 
Cabral himself, veridical in nature, and probably affected by the 
condition of the dying woman, as it is possible that phantasms of 
the kind require some energy supplied by the living who are in a 
state to generate it, a state on the border-land of death. 

The next case is remarkably interesting, as it is not only a 
phantasm of the dead, but is accompanied by the account of a 
phantasm of another person definitely related to the decedent 
and appearing to other persons as a premonition of her death, 
and is also a vision of the dying person, so that it combines three 
characteristics of great interest. It also is quoted by Mr. Myers 
from the '' Census of Hallucinations." Mrs. B. is the writer of 
the narrative. 

"April, 1892. 

" At Fiesole, on March 11, 1869, I was giving my little children their din- 
ner at half-ipast one o'clock. It was a fine hot day. As I was in the act of 
serving macaroni and milk from a high tureen, so that I had to stand 
to reach it, and give my attention to what I was doing, — on raising my 
head (as much from fatigue as for any purpose), the wall opposite me 
seemed to open, and I saw my mother lying dead on her bed in her little 

house at . Some flowers were at her side and on her breast: she 

looked calm, but unmistakably dead, and the coffin was there. 

" It was so real that I could scarcely believe that the wall was really 
brick and mortar, and not a transparent window — in fact, it was a 



SPONTANEOUS INCIDENTS 157 

wall dividing the hotel in which we were living from the Carabinieri. 

" I was in very weak health — suffering intensely with neuralgia — 
having gone through a bad confinement, brought on by traveling, the 
baby was almost still born, on January 31. 

" Owing to a family quarrel, I had left England without telling my peo- 
ple where I was going; but I was so fond of my mother that, when in 
Paris, I made an excuse to write to an old servant, who lived with my 
mother, to ask her for a toy which we had left with her, — the object being 
to get news of my mother. Reply came that for years she had not been 
so well and strong; thus I had no reason for imagining her to be dead. 

"I was so distressed at the vision, that I wrote to her (my mother) 
to give her my address, and entreat her to let me know how she was. 
By return of post came the statement that she had died on March 5, and 
was buried on the eleventh. At the hour I saw her, she was removed from 
her home to Kensal Green Cemetery. She had wished to see me so 
much that letters had been sent to a great many continental cities, hoping 
I might be found; but I never got a letter from my sister till long after 
I had received the news of my mother's death. 

" When I was married, my mother made me promise, as I was leaving 
home, to be sure to let her know in any way God permitted if I died, and 
she would try to find some way of communicating to me the fact of her 
death — supposing that circumstances prevented the usual methods of writ- 
ing or telegraphing. I considered the vision a fulfilment of this promise, 
for my mind was engrossed with my own grief and pain — the loss of 
baby, and my neuralgia, and the anxieties of starting a new life. 

" My youngest sister, since dead, was called to my mother and left 
Devonshire, where she was staying with friends, to come home. When 
she arrived at home, she entered the drawing-room, but rushed out ter- 
rified, exclaiming that she had seen godmamma, who was seated by the fire 
in my mother's chair. Godmamma had been dead since 1852. She had 
been my mother's governess — almost foster-mother ; had lived with her 
during her married life, been godmother to her eldest girl, and when my 
father died had accepted the duty of taking his place as far as possible in 
the family, to shield her from trouble and protect her — a duty which 
she fulfilled nobly. 

" My other sister went into the drawing-room to see what had scared 

K , and saw the figure of godmamma just as K had. Later in the 

day, the same figure stood by, then sat on the edge of my mother's bed, 
and was seen by both my sisters and the old servant, looking just as she 
had when alive, except that she wore a gray dress, and, as far as we 
could remember, she had always worn black. My mother saw her, for 
she turned towards her and said ' Mary ' — her name." 

This is also an instance of what the English investigators call a 
** compact case," which means an instance in which the parties con- 
cerned had made a promise between them to return. George 
Pelham was a case of the kind and Mr. Myers enumerates twelve 



158 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

such cases. But I turn now to some American instances of the 
kind ; I shall only summarize the first case. 

A man died on April 12, 1905. On the twentieth of May follow- 
ing, the sister-in-law was washing the dishes in the kitchen, and her 
sister was playing the piano, when the sister in the kitchen saw an 
apparition of her brother-in-law lying in bed straight in front of 
her just where she had seen him for the last month of his life. 
The music played on the piano was the same that the sister had 
played for him during his last illness. 

The next case I must also abbreviate, as it is very long. It is 
reported by Dr. Hey singer, who took it from the autobiography of 
Captain Little, of the merchant service out of Baltimore. The 
book was entitled, *' Life on the Ocean; or, Twenty Years at Sea." 

It was a clear night. All had turned in. About midnight the 
captain was called by the sailor on the watch, who said that there 
was on deck a woman dressed in black, who was calling for him. 
Believing the sailor to be half drunk, as was generally the case at 
that period, the captain drove him away ; but the sailor persisted in 
his statement and pointed out the place where he had seen and talked 
with the woman. Diligent search revealed nothing and they all 
turned in again. About two hours later another sailor, who was 
a perfectly sober man, called the captain again with the same story 
of a woman calling for the captain. The crew corroborated his 
testimony. Search was made again but without effect. The sail- 
ors, being somewhat superstitious, wanted to be discharged, but the 
captain would not listen to it. They felt that the apparition was a 
premonition that the ship was going down. On the captain's stub- 
born refusal they went to work, and the ship stood out to sea. 
On the second day they encountered a terrific storm and all were 
fearful of the consequences. At midnight, precisely, the ghostly 

vistor appeared again, but neither Captain C nor the narrator 

of the story saw it. The vessel reached Martinique safely and 
went thence to Guadaloupe, where yellow fever seized some of the 
crew; during the raging of this malady the same visitor was seen 
again by the crew. On reaching home after the return voyage, 
Captain C received a letter saying that his wife was dead. 



SPONTANEOUS INCIDENTS 159 

On comparing the time of her demise with that of the first ap- 
pearance of the lady in black, while the ship lay in Annapolis Roads, 
he found that the time exactly corresponded. 

But for the subsequent apparitions this case would be classified 
with phantasms of the hving or of those just dying. The next in- 
stance is a " compact case " and was reported to me by the Rev. 
A. B. Weymouth, a missionary in the Hawaiian Islands. 

" Lahaina, Hawaiian Islands, October 24, 1910. 
" Dear Dr. Hyslop : 

*' When I was living in Los Angeles, California, I became acquainted 

with Mrs. Jennie D who seemed to be a congenial soul. In the autumn 

of 1888, Mrs. D and I made a verbal agreement that the one who 

should first enter the spiritual world should return (d.v.) and appear to the 
other. In the spring of 1898, the lady became seriously ill and after a 
few months of suffering passed away. As no tidings came from the 
deceased, I supposed that some unexpected obstacle prevented her return. 
But at last the long silence was broken. On Saturday evening, October 
2.2, 1910, I retired to rest soon after nine o'clock. After refreshing sleep 
I awoke, with the impression that something unusual was about to happen. 
Then I distinctly heard a voice saying : * Jennie D. is coming.' A few 
moments later, something like a bright cloud appeared in my bedroom. 
In the midst of the cloud I recognized the form of my long lost friend. 
While hovering in the air she sang two verses sweetly. Then other 
spirit forms appeared (the faces not recognized) and joined in the refrain. 
I had never heard the words or the music before ; and I regret that I can- 
not recall the words. They were very beautiful and so was the melody. 
When the music ceased, the bright cloud and the celestial visitors disap- 
peared and my room was dark again. I arose immediately, lighted a lamp, 
looked at my watch and made a record of the incident. The time of the 
vision was 12.30 on Sunday morning. 

" Sincerely yours, 

" A. B. Weymouth." 

Mr. Albert J. Edmunds, librarian of the Pennsylvania Historical 
Society, reports a case in fuller detail than that given in the report 
published by the English Society, and again by Mr. Myers in his 
great work, *' Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death." 
We shall have to abbreviate it, though it is published in detail in 
the " Journal," of the American Society for Psychic Research 
(Volume VI, pp. 439-448). The man who saw the apparition was 
well known to Mr. Myers, who took down the statement from this 
man himself. 



i6o CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

" In 1880 I succeeded a Mr. Q. as librarian of the X Library. I had 
never seen Mr. Q. nor any photograph nor likeness of him, when the 
following incidents occurred. I may, of course, have heard the library 
assistants describe his appearance, though I have no recollection of this. 
I was sitting alone in the library one evening late in March, 1884, finishing 
some work after hours, when it suddenly occurred to me that I should 
miss the last train to H., where I was then living, if I did not make haste. 
It was then 10:55, ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ train left X. at 11:05. I gathered up 
some books in one hand, took the lamp in the other, and prepared to leave 
the librarian's room, which communicated by a passage with the main 
room of the library. As my lamp illuminated this passage, I saw ap- 
parently at the further end of it a man's face. I instantly thought a thief 
had got into the library. This was by no means impossible, and the prob- 
ability of it had occurred to me before. I turned back into my room, put 
down the books and took a revolver from the safe, and, holding the lamp 
cautiously behind me, I made my way along the passage — which had a 
corner behind which I thought my thief might be lying in wait — into the 
main room. Here I saw no one, but the room was large and encumbered 
with bookcases. I called out loudly several times to the intruder to show 
himself, more with the hope of attracting a passing policeman than of 
drawing the intruder. Then I saw a face looking round one of the 
bookcases. I say looking round, but it had an odd appearance as if the 
body were in the bookcase, as the face came so closely to the edge and 
I could see no body. The face was pallid and hairless, and the orbits of 
the eyes were very deep. I advanced towards it, and as I did so I saw 
an old man with high shoulders seem to rotate, and with a shuffling gait 
walk rather quickly from the bookcase to a small lavatory, which opened 
from the library and had no other access. I heard no noise. I followed 
the man at once into the lavatory; and to my extreme surprise found no 
one there. I examined the window (about twelve by fourteen inches), 
and found it closed and fastened. I opened it and looked out. It opened 
into a well, the bottom of which, ten feet below, was a sky-light, and the 
top open to the sky some twenty feet above. It was in the middle of the 
building and no one could have dropped into it without smashing the glass 
nor climbed out of it without a ladder, but no one was there. Nor had 
there been anything like time for a man to get out of the window, as I 
followed the intruder instantly. Completely mystified, I even looked into 
the little cupboard under the fixed basin. There was nowhere hiding for 
a child, and I confess I began to experience for the first time what novelists 
describe as an ' eerie ' feeling. 

" I left the library, and found I had missed my train. Next morning I 
mentioned what I had seen to a local clergyman who, on hearing my de- 
scription, said, ' Why, that 's old Q ! ' Soon after I saw a photograph ( from 
a drawing) of Q., and the resemblance was certainly striking. Q. had 
lost all his hair, eyebrows and all, from (I believe) a gunpowder accident. 
His walk was a peculiar, rapid, high-shouldered shuffle. 

*' Later inquiry proved he had died at about the time of year at which 
T saw the figure." 



SPONTANEOUS INCIDENTS 161 

Two assistants in the library some time later saw a spectral light 
in the room in which Mr. Q. used to sit late at night writing articles. 
This was in 1884. About 4 p. m., April i, 1885, Mr. J., one of the 
persons who had seen the spectral light, was sitting at the head of a 
long table, and asked Mr. Edmunds, the sponsor for this story, to 
stay a minute, as something was the matter with the table. The up- 
shot of the matter was, that Mr. Edmunds, after proving that other 
conjectures were not correct, shouted out the suspicion that it had 
something to do with '' old Q." What they had heard was a '' half- 
bell-like vibration, which sounded something like a tuning fork when 
struck and held to the ear." Just as Mr. Edmunds suggested that 
it had something to do with " old Q.," Mr. R., who had seen the 
illuminated room, came in. *' He was the only member of the 
staff that had worked under Q." The three men put their fingers 
lightly on the table, and, as soon as Mr. R. touched the table, the 
sound came ringing out of his sleeve. Two of the party rushed 
to R. and looked into his sleeve, but found nothing there. Re- 
calling that such phenomena sometimes occurred on the anniversa- 
ries of deaths they decided to find out when Mr. Q. had died. A 
messenger was dispatched to some one who knew and he returned 
with the information that Mr. Q. had died on the first of April, 
1880, between four and five o'clock in the afternoon. 

Mr. Edmunds then asked R. whether, when Q. was alive, he 
was accustomed to hear in this library any sound that at all re- 
sembled the ringing; he replied that he was. Upon that spot 
on the table whence the sound appeared to proceed there used to 
stand an old cracked gong, which when Q. wanted one of his boys, 
he used to strike; it sounded like the vibration which the three 
men had heard. Thus, on the fifth anniversary, to the very hour, 
of the old man's death, a phantasmal bell reminded them of his 
presence. 

A number of experiments were then held, and the alleged Q. 
was interrogated with some success. But the important fact is, that 
a series of shared experiences and of real or alleged messages came, 
strengthening the significance of the first apparition ; it is only the 
phantasmal phenomena that are important in this connection. 

The following incident has a romantic and perhaps pathetic in- 



i62 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

terest. It was in the collection of Dr. Hodgson, which came to me 
after his death; and, as I knew the person who had reported it, 
I took the pains to have it fully confirmed. It was written out by 
the lady herself and reported to Dr. Hodgson in 1904. Mrs. 
Howell did not date her account. 

" In the year 1865 I had a lover by the name of John A. Broadhead. 
Owing to several circumstances I was obliged to give him up, although I 
was deeply attached to him. When he found that he could not marry 
me, he left the town of Mount Morris, where I lived, but before he left 
he said to me : ' Mary, I think this separation will kill me, but if I die 
and a spirit can come back to earth, I will come to you.' 

" I replied, ' Oh, no, don't ; for that would frighten me dreadfully.' 
' No, it would not,' he answered, ' for I should come so calmly that you 
would not be at all afraid.' 

" In 1868 I married George R. Howell, a Presbyterian minister who 
knew all about my affection for John Broadhead. In April, 1871, I was 
visiting my old home with my husband and baby boy. About one o'clock 
one Sunday afternoon (I think it was April 12) I sat in the parlor of my 
father's house, my baby in my arms, on the long old fashioned sofa on 
which I had so often sat with my old lover. My husband sat across the 
room with his back to me, reading. The sofa was unusually long and I 
sat at the end of it near a door opening into the ball. 

" Suddenly I felt a pressure against my knee and limb as though some 
one had come very close to me, and I looked up expecting to see one 
of my brothers, but to my great surprise saw my old lover, John Broad- 
head, standing there beside me. I felt greatly distressed, for he lived in 
a distant city. I had not seen him since 1865, and I thought it an unwar- 
rantable intrusion that he should enter my father's house thus unan- 
nounced. It never occurred to me that he was not alive. I noticed 
every detail of his dress and can even now distinctly remember the 
black and white necktie which he wore. Before I had a chance to speak 
he raised his right hand and said, speaking very slowly and gently : ' Be 
very calm, Mary. I am what they call dead. I died in the West three 
weeks ago to-day.' Then, lifting his left hand, he pointed to a newspaper 
which lay at the other end of the sofa about three feet away from me and 
said : ' You will find my death in that paper,' Then without moving a 
muscle he vanished while I gazed at him. 

" I was not at all afraid, but felt completely overcome by the shock of 
suddenly learning that he was dead, for, much as I loved my husband, 
I had never gotten over my old feeling for John Broadhead; and if it had 
not been for the baby in my arms I think I would have fainted away. As 
it was, I could not speak or call my husband, but I managed to hitch along 
the sofa till I could reach the paper to which he had pointed. This 
turned out to be a copy of the New York ' Times ' that had never been 
taken out of the wrapper in which it had come through the mails. I tore 
it open and there, among the death notices, I found this paragraph: 



SPONTANEOUS INCIDENTS 163 

" ' Died in Burlington, Iowa, March 22, 1871, John A. Broadhead of this 
city in the thirty- fourth year of his age.' 

" Mary Seymour Howell." 

It is certain that these phantasms of the dead cannot be ex- 
plained by telepathy between living persons, except by proving an 
extension of thought-transference that has never been justified by 
any facts whatever. It is an interesting fact that out of the twelve 
cases of compact before death, three fulfilled their pledge before 
they died ! They were very ill, near death, when they appeared to 
the other party to the promise, but recovered health, some of them 
still living when the facts were reported. This circumstance 
strongly supports the appHcation of telepathy ; and the scientific men 
who had to consider them were entirely right to pause before accept- 
ing a spiritistic interpretation of phantasms of the dying. The facts 
made it necessary, if phantasms of any kind were to be regarded 
as testimony of survival, that they should be of the type to which 
no proved telepathy could apply. The present instances seem to be 
illustrations of the desired kind. If telepathy applies to them at all, 
it will be that form of it which is not an alternative theory to 
belief in spirits, but the name of a process of communication which 
will apply alike to the agency of the dead and of the living. It 
is probable that the same process lies at the basis of all phantasms 
and that the differences lie only in the agents. But the main point 
here is that the phantasms of the dead show no traces of being in- 
itiated or instigated by the living. I have chosen for the most part 
those which have a teleological aspect; and teleology is not sug- 
gested by any known telepathy. 

Such phenomena, however, can never constitute the scientific 
proof for survival that the experimental investigator will require. 
It is conceivable that they might be accumulated until they did es- 
tablish the probabilities so overwhelmingly that experiment would 
not seem imperative. But always experimental proof is more sat- 
isfactory than spontaneous phenomena. The spontaneous phenom- 
ena suggest the problem and go far toward making the conclusion 
reasonable, though we may feel some hesitation in each case about 
accepting their evidential character. They often contain features 
that associate them psychologically with the phenomena obtained 



i64 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

through mediumistic sources. We cannot dwell on this circurh- 
stance. We only remark it as an additional characteristic that tends 
to support the genuineness and significance of the facts. 



CHAPTER XIII 
EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 

EXPERIMENT is always the most important resource of 
science when it wants to obtain assurance on any point. 
Spontaneous phenomena are exposed to unexpected objec- 
tions, often when we feel most sure about them, while the fear that 
malobservation may have vitiated some conclusions keeps the judg- 
ment in suspense, until experiment, in which we can determine condi- 
tions, has supplied us with the evidential desideratum. The 
phenomena of psychic research, which are sporadic even under the 
most favorable circumstances and more so under test conditions, 
offer special difficulties in the way of either their reproduction or 
discovery under evidential conditions. Whatever the difficulties, 
however, science insists on experimental production of the phenom- 
ena for better observation and security as to their genuineness and 
significance. 

For some years experimental results have been obtained by in- 
vestigators all over the world. There is to-day such a mass of 
well-authenticated facts affording a selection of incidents having 
the desired evidential value, as to make any other than the spiritistic 
hypothesis exceedingly improbable. Facts intelligently selected 
with reference to proving the personal identity of the deceased are 
not of the kind exhibited in telepathy. They are usually such as 
would most naturally express the mind of the alleged communicator, 
and, with various other characteristics of the phenomena them- 
selves, they so commend themselves to a spiritistic theory, that no 
other view of them can be rational. 

In such a summary of the facts as I give I cannot be expected 
to tell all the circumstances which exclude normal knowledge as 
the source of the messages. The detailed records do this quite 
fully. The reader will have to be content with the general state- 
ment that no incident which has not stood that test has been se- 

165 



/ 



i66 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

lected and that I have endeavored to ehminate all bias in recording 
and selecting the facts here used. I am primarily interested in 
their importance for establishing supernormal knowledge and the 
personal identity, of the communicator. In some cases the very 
description of the facts will be a half-guarantee of genuineness, 
and often very little will have to be said to protect them against 
skepticism. 

The first incident that I select is strong and complicated. It in- 
volves what is called a '' cross-correspondence." There is a tech- 
nical distinction between *' cross-correspondence " and *' cross-ref- 
erence." The former implies the latter, but '' cross-correspondence" 
involves the completion through a second psychic of a message 
obtained through another, or an increment that is relevant and not 
given at the first station. " Cross-reference " need be no more 
than the delivery of the same message from two independent 
sources. For our purposes there need be little difference between 
them, though the " cross-correspondence " appears to many people 
to be the more cogent. 

The incident is not fully reported in the paper by Mrs. Verrall 
in the " Proceedings " of the English Society, and hence for the 
part which pertains to what Dr. Hodgson did I shall have to depend 
on my memory. He told me that, at a sitting with Mrs. Piper, in 
which Mr. Myers purported to communicate, Mr. Myers referred 
to Miss Helen Verrall as the daughter of Mrs. Verrall and re- 
marked that she was " a better light than the mother," adding 
that he had got her to see a vision of a hand and a book. Dr. 
Hodgson, seeing an opportunity to get a cross-reference, and know- 
ing nothing about the daughter, asked the communicator to make 
her see a hand and a spear, varying the picture as little as possible. 
Rector, the control, to whom the request was given, did not under- 
stand the word "spear" and interpreted it as "sphere." Dr. 
Hodgson corrected it and spelled the word " spear " and then 
Rector caught it, repeating the word " spear," and asking Dr. 
Hodgson if he meant some flying weapon. Dr. Hodgson said that 
he did, and there the matter stood, so far as events in Boston were 
concerned. This was on January 28, 1901. When he made in- 
quiries later as to what had happened in England, he ascertained 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 167 

that the daughter, Miss Helen Verrall, had received no vision of 
either a hand and book or a hand and spear. But Mrs. Verrall's 
record of automatic writing on January 31, 1902, three days after 
Dr. Hodgson had sent the message, contained the following script 
in Latin and Greek, the first word being a mongrel of neither 
language. 

" Panopticon a^aipas aTLvdkXei (Tvv8ey[xa fxva-TiKOV, tl ovk eStSw? j 

volatile ferrwm — pro telo impinget/' 

On February 4, the communicator through Mrs. Piper said that 
he had succeeded in getting " Sphear " through to the daughter 
Helen. This statement is not correct; but it is apparent that Mrs. 
Verrall got the exact idea, except for the hand, in the words '^ vola- 
tile ferrum — pro telo," with the word crcf)aipas, which is the Greek 
for " sphere," representing the misunderstanding in Boston of the 
word '' spear," which Dr. Hodgson had given and which had been 
mistaken for " sphere." 

The significant point here is, that what was started in English 
was translated into Greek and Latin w^hen delivered in England, 
with the same mistake there that had been made in Boston. Vola- 
tile ferrum is the Latin for '* flying iron," or arrow, and telum 
(ablative telo) is the Latin for javelin or spear. The remainder 
of the message shows the filling that comes through the transmitter 
or the subconscious of Mrs. Verrall. The chief points lie in the 
coincidences between the words " spear " and " sphere " at one 
end of the line and volatile ferrum — pro telo and o-</)aipa? at the 
other end. No serious difficulty is met in the mistake about 
" sphear " in the sitting with Mrs. Piper on February 4th. That 
is a natural error on the part of the subconscious, which had started 
with the impression that Miss Verrall was the subject of the ex- 
periment. In fact, this mistake and that of transforming the word 
" spear " into " sphere " and putting it in Greek in England is in 
favor of a spiritistic interpretation of the coincidences, as it would 
be natural in the complicated circumstances under which such a 
message has to be transmitted. But the reader can judge of all 
this for himself. 

A similar mistake in regard to the personality through whom a 
message was intended to be delivered was made in the St. Paul 



i68 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

cross-correspondence. Dr. Hodgson purported to be communicat- 
ing through Mrs. Piper in England when Sir OHver J. Lodge was 
present as sitter. It was the communicator, Dr. Hodgson, that 
proposed the name of St. Paul as an experiment, saying that he 
would go to Mrs. Holland and deliver this message at once. 

This was on November 15, 1906. But no reference to St. Paul 
appeared in the work of Mrs. Holland. By this time, however. 
Miss Helen Verrall, like her mother, was doing automatic writing 
in foreign languages. On January 12, Miss Verrall received the 
following in her automatic writing. It began in Latin and ended 
with the statement wholly unconnected with it : " The name is not 
right, robbing Peter to pay Paul? sanctus nomine quod efficit nil 
continens petatur subveniet." 

There is the mention of the name St. Paul here to suggest the 
possibilities, but it does no-t prove the int ention. But, on Feb- 
ruary 26, the following came, making rather evident the intention 
of the reference. Readers should notice how it is buried in a mass 
of apparently irrelevant matter. The first passage shows that a 
peculiar device had to be adopted to get the name through, if it 
refers to the cross-reference at all, and I have several times ob- 
served in the work of Mrs. Chenoweth a similar circuitous method. 
Here is the second passage. 

" A tangle of flowers with green grass between wall flowers, 
pansies, which such hurry. Did you know that the second way 
was shorter. You have not understood about Paul. Ask Lodge. 
Quibus eruditis advocatis rem explicabis non nisi ad unam norman 
refers hoc satis alia vana. A tower of ancient masonry with bat- 
tlements." 

The intention here is unmistakable, especially since the reference 
has no logical connection with its environment, save as this environ- 
ment is explanatory. In connection with the reference to St. Paul 
on January 12, Mr. Piddington, who writes the article, translates 
the Latin to mean: " Holy in name (i. e. with the title of saint) 
what she (or he) is doing is of no use (i. e. by itself). Let the 
point (continens) be looked for; it will help." The Latin words 
of February 26 he translates to mean as follows: " By calling to 
your aid what learned men will you explain the matter? (You will 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 169 

not explain it) unless you refer to one standard. This is enough; 
more is useless." 

Mr. Piddington adds that the names Peter and Paul do not occur 
elsewhere in the automatic writing of Miss Verrall, so that it seems 
reasonable to suppose that the cross-reference is intentional. 

As stated above, the writing of Mrs. Holland did not contain 
the name St. Paul, but Sir Oliver Lodge notes that, on December 
31, there is an approach to the subject, w^hich is thought to sug- 
gest an explanation of the words in Miss Verrall's script. The 
statement in the writing of Mrs. Holland was: " II Peter i: 15. 
This witness is true. It is now time that the shadow should be 
lifted from your spirit — ' Let patience have her perfect work.' 
* This is a faithful saying.' " 

The verse II Peter i : 15 is: "Moreover I will endeavor that 
ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in re- 
membrance." It is quite apparent that this verse is not relevant to 
the name of St. Paul, though the references and quotations follow- 
ing it are more or less relevant. This fact was noted by Mr. Pid- 
dington and the relevance of the remainder of the statements. But 
Rev. Dr. Walter F. Prince, in a review of the whole cross-correspon- 
dence in connection with the name of St. Paul, calls attention to a 
possible mistake in the reference to the Epistle of Peter by showing 
that, if it had been " II Peter iii : 15 " the reference would have been 
extraordinarily apt. He assumes that the mistake was " one " for 
" three," or " first " for " third," assuming an auditory transmis- 
sion. The verse reads : " And account that the longsuffering of 
our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul, according 
to the wisdom given unto him, has written unto you." Dr. Prince 
notes that this reference to St. Paul is not only direct, but also 
that it is " the one verse in the midst of 166 Petrine verses, and 
that it is likewise the only verse mentioning him out of 734 which 
make up the body of the non-Pauline epistles." The possible sig- 
nificance of this fact is apparent when w^e note that the other sev- 
eral passages referred to have special relevance to St. Paul. The ex- 
pression, " This witness is true," Dr. Prince notes, is in St. Paul's 
Epistle to Titus, 1:13, though similar expressions are found in St. 
John. " This is a faithful saying " occurs at least three times in St. 



lyo CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

Paul's Epistles, according to Dr. Prince, and he adds a fourth in- 
stance. He also explains how the other two statements are rem- 
iniscent of St. Paul, but we need not emphasize the fact beyond 
recording Dr. Prince's opinion. As the main coincidence is clear, 
we need not stress the more enigmatical coincidences. It is only 
our knowledge that such circuitous methods are often employed that 
allows or requires us to tolerate or admit the cogency of the con- 
nection. The instance is the least cogent of the cross-correspond- 
ences. 

Another instance may be briefly cited. At a sitting on January 
1 6, 1907, with Mrs. Piper, Mr. Piddington asked the communicator, 
who happened to be Mr. Myers, to attach a sign to any message he 
got through as a cross-correspondence, and suggested that this sign 
be something like a circle and a triangle. " A circle and a triangle 
inside it appeared in the script of Mrs. Verrall at the foot of a re- 
markable communication embodying a successful cross-correspond- 
ence " on January 28, 1907, just twelve days later than the date of 
Mr. Piddington's suggestion. As he had mentioned Mrs. Verrall 
and Mrs. Holland as subjects for the experiment, this coincidence 
has much value, especially as showing that the circle and the triangle 
were signs of a cross-correspondence message. The automatic 
writing of Mrs. Holland did not show any circle and triangle in it; 
but on May 8, 1907, it did show geometrical figures, among which 
were a circle and a triangle, though the triangle was not in the circle. 
Mrs. Piper was in London, Mrs. Verrall in Cambridge, and Mrs. 
Holland in India. 

This instance, however, as we have noted, is connected with the 
next, which is so complex that its meaning is unmistakable to all 
careful readers. It is called the " Hope, Star and Browning " in- 
cident. It will be apparent also that more than one personality is 
probably concerned in it. On February 11, 1907, came the fol- 
lowing at a sitting with Mrs. Piper, Mr. Piddington being the sitter 
and Mr. Myers the supposed communicator. 

Did she [Mrs. Verrall] receive the word " evangelical " ? 

("Evangelical"?) 

Yes. 

(I don't know, but I will inquire.) ^ 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 171 

I referred also to Browning again. 

(Do you remember what your exact reference to Browning was?) 
I referred to Hope and Browning. I also said " star." [Interruption.] 
(Now, Myers, I must say good-by, as the friend is here.) 
Meanwhile look out for " Hope," " Star," and " Browning." 

On returning- from the sitting, Mr. Piddington examined the rec- 
ord of Mrs. Verrall and found there on an earlier date, January 28, 
1907, evidence of allusion to this cross-correspondence. On the 
next day, February 12, he asked Mr. Myers, the communicator, 
about the word " evangelical," as it had no meaning to him. Mr. 
Myers explained, v^^ithout any suggestion from Mr. Piddington, 
that it was an attempt to give the name, Evelyn Hope. 

He then quotes from the two records of January 23 and 28, 
1907, to show the reference to " Hope, Star and Browning," 
though in an indirect and enigmatical form, showing evidence of the 
presence and influence of Dr. Hodgson. I quote first the record 
of January 22,, 1907. 

" Justice holds the scales. That gives the words, but an anagram would 
be better. Tell him that — rats, star, tars and so on. Try this. It has 
been tried before. RTATS, rearrange these five letters, or again tears, 
stare: seam, same, and so on. Skeat, takes, Kate's, Keats, stake, 
steak. But the letters you would give to-night are not so many — only 
three — as t." 

The explanation of these anagrams will follow the next quota- 
tion, as a similar process is involved in that record. It is the sit- 
ting of January 28, 1907. 

"Aster [star], T€pa<; [wonder or sign]. The world's wonder, and all 
a wonder and a wild desire — A WINGED DESIRE WoTrre/oo? ei/aoj? 
[winged love]. 

" Then there is Blake and mocked my loss of liberty. But it is all the 
same thing — the winged desire, epws Tro^etvos [passion] the hope that 
leaves Jthe earth for the sky — Abt Vogler for earth, too hard, that found 
itself or lost itself — in the sky. On the earth the broken sounds, threads, 
in the sky the perfect arc. The C major of this life. But your recollec- 
tion is at fault." 

[Then follows an arc with ithe triangle in it, and then a full circle with 
the triangle in it.] 

Both these passages are in the records of Mrs. Verrall. The indi- 



172 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

cation that Browning is meant lies in the allusion to Abt Vogler. 
Mrs. Verrall recognized this allusion, but did not know what it 
meant, not knowing that any cross-correspondence had been at- 
tempted. Note that this occurred on January 23, nineteen days 
before the matter was alluded to through Mrs. Piper on February 
II. The passage from Browning is not correctly quoted in the 
message. The word " hope " is in it, but instead the word " pas- 
sion '^ is in Browning. This idea is recognized in the Greek word 
for " love " or the god of love. The line in Browning is : '* The 
passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky." Mrs. Ver- 
rall queried if vTroTrrepo^ was an attempt at " bird," as it means 
" winged," and did not remark what Mr. Piddington notes, namely, 
that ' bird ' is suggested by the line in Browning, which runs, " O 
lyric Love, half angel and half bird." This line in Browning pre- 
cedes the words in Mrs. Verrall's record, namely, *' And all a 
wonder and a wild desire." Thus the passage is packed with 
Browning, and the word " hope " is found in one of the state- 
ments. 

The anagrams contain a remarkable intimation that Dr. Hodgson 
was behind a part of the cross-correspondence. They had no mean- 
ing to Mr. Piddington, but finally he remembered having seen 
something of the kind among the papers of Dr. Hodgson when he 
was in America settling the affairs of the American Branch. He 
found on investigation that he had kept a paper on which several 
of these very anagrams were made by Dr. Hodgson himself while 
living. Several papers containing them had been destroyed, but 
he had happened to keep one of them. On it is the list of words: 
" Star, tars, rats, arts, tras." Besides it contains " tears " and 
" stare," and the word '* aster," which is the English for a species 
of flower, and the Greek word for '' star," which comes out through 
Mrs. Verrall, is an anagram play in the Greek on the word for 
wonder or sign, serving at the same time for a transition to Brown- 
ing. It throws much light on the process and the subliminal action 
of the medium's mind. 

But the cross-correspondence did not stop here. Miss Verrall 
had not been told what was happening. One day she got in her 
automatic writing the drawing of a star with the following: 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 173 

" That was the sign she will understand when she sees it. diapason, Bta 
Ttacriov pv6fjbo<s [rhythm through it all]. No arts avail. The heavenly- 
harmony cos ccfirj oTrAarwv [as Plato says]. The mystic three and a star 
above it all. rats everywhere in Hamelin town. Now do you understand. 
Henry." 

It was Browning who wrote the " Pied Piper of Hamelin," and 
in the passage quoted there is not only a definite allusion to " star," 
but there is also the allusion to '' rats " and *' arts," two words in 
the anagrams mentioned through Mrs. Verrall. For brevity's sake 
I omitted one statement in the quotation which, in Greek as it was 
given, means "a foreign physician"; the "Pied Piper" cured 
Hamelin of its plague of rats. The same circuitous reference to 
Browning, apparent in the automatic writing of Mrs. Verrall, ap- 
pears here. We have then three psychics alluding to the same 
complex group of ideas; the circumstances not only prove the cross- 
correspondence, but also show very clearly the difficulties in com- 
municating. 

The evidence for cross-correspondence is not the best. If it 
were as direct and meaningful as desired, there could be no skep- 
ticism based on the ground that the connections are fantastic and 
circuitous, or dependent on the interpretation of the reader. But, 
while some concession must be made to critical readers, the difficulty 
is not very apparent in the next instance, which is called that of 
" Crossing the Bar." It requires some preliminary explanation. 

Mrs. Verrall had been struck with some indication of the per- 
sonality communicating in the messages of Mrs. Piper; and, know- 
ing that her personal acquaintance with Mr. Myers before his death 
precluded trusting her own messages reflecting his personal char- 
acteristics, she resolved on a test which would eliminate the subcon- 
scious knowledge of Mrs. Piper and perhaps strengthen the evi- 
dence for the presence of Mr. Myers. She looked about for some- 
thing to use at a sitting with Mrs. Piper, that might provoke a 
significant reaction from the alleged Myers as communicator. She 
required a sentence or words which Mr. Myers would naturally 
recognize and which Mrs. Piper would not understand. Finally 
she hit upon a few words from a passage in Plotinus, used as a 
motto to a poem by Mr. Myers himself. The words were koI 



174 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

avTos ovpavb<s aKvrjoiv, or, Spelled in English, kai autos ouranos 
akumon, meaning ** the very heavens calm." Mrs. Piper did not 
know Greek, and so she would not be able even subconsciously to 
know the meaning of the terms when uttered to her control in the 
trance. Armed with these Greek words, Mrs. Verrall went to Mrs. 
Piper on January 29, 1907, and gave three of the words to the sup- 
posed Myers, omitting the first of the four, kai. She expected 
some reference to the following : 

1. A translation into English of the three words. 

2. A reference to Myers's poem on Tennyson. 

3. A reference to Plotinus and the latter part of " Human Per- 
sonality," the title of Myers's great work. 

On January 30, at the sitting with Mrs. Piper, Mrs. Verrall re- 
ceived an allusion to a " haven of rest," purporting to come from 
Mr. Myers; and it was thought that it contained a remote refer- 
ence to what was wanted. But this is only conjectural, as it may 
be a plainer English version of the expression " celestial halcyon 
days," another cross-reference having some associations with the 
present subject. Not until March 6, were distinct traces of the 
translation noticeable. In the meantime, Mrs. Verrall's automatic 
writing had taken up the subject and discoursed about it in a re- 
markable manner with results that seem evidential in some in- 
stances, though much of the matter is exposed to the suspicion of 
being subconscious production. The details would make too long 
a story here. But the messages purporting to come from Mr. 
Myers through her script refer to Tennyson's *' In Memoriam " 
and his poem on Lucretius, both of which in some passages have 
affinities to thoughts in Plotinus. Though Mrs. Verrall had read 
Tennyson's " In Memoriam " in her college days, she had no suspi- 
cion that there were passages in it referring to Plotinus, until she 
re-read the poem in order to discover them. Passages from Ten- 
nyson's " Lucretius " were introduced very directly into the auto- 
matic script; they were almost a literal translation of the ideas in 
the three Greek words she had given Mr. Myers at the sitting with 
Mrs. Piper. This circumstance, of course, is not evidential; but 
these very ideas came back through Mrs. Piper, who knew nothing 
about either the Greek words or the relation of " In Memoriam " 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 175 

and " Lucretius " to their meaning. These records extend from 
February 12 to March 11, while the communicator was silent on 
the matter all this time, in so far as Mrs. Piper's communications 
were concerned, except that on March 6 Mrs. Piper's trance per- 
sonalities began the translation and the system of pertinent cross- 
correspondences. I quote Mr. Piddington. He alone was at the 
sitting. 

" On March 6, Myers, in the course of announcing various cross-corre- 
spondences which he claimed to have transmitted to Mrs. Verrall, gave 
M^ithout explanation three words, * Cloudless, Sky, Horizon,' followed by 
the phrase : ' a cloudless sky beyond the horizon.' In the waking stage 
Mrs. Piper uttered the words : * moaning at the bar when I put out to sea.' 
A little later she pronounced the name * Arthur Hallam ' ; then almost 
directly said it agani : ' Arthur Hallam. Good-by. Margaret,' Margaret 
being Mrs. Verrall's Christian name." 

The mention of Arthur Hallam, the subject of *' In Memoriam," 
was very pertinent here. Mr. Piddington adds in his remarks : 

" Though no claim was made to have given a translation of the words 
of the test question in the phrase ' cloudless sky beyond the horizon ' it 
would be difficult to suppose that chance had furnished so satisfactory a 
paraphrase as this of avro? ovpavo<5 aKVfxiov (kai autos akumon) ; but 
preceded as the phrase was by references to Mrs. Verrall and followed by 
the quotation from ' Crossing the Bar ' and the name * Arthur Hallam,' 
it is practically impossible to attribute its appropriateness to chance. 
Moreover, this paraphrase seems to indicate knowledge not only of the 
meaning of the three words of the test question but also of their original 
context." 

Mr. Piddington then quotes the whole of the original passage 
from which the three words were taken and shows that the Greek 
word for " air " preceded that for " heaven " and that the latter 
meant what was beyond the air; as we in English often use " sky " 
for the region occupied by the air, the phrase " beyond the sky " 
points to a knowledge of the whole passage. 

At this time Mrs. Verrall had not consciously grasped the mean- 
ing of her own automatic writing in connection with the references 
to *' Arthur Hallam " and " Crossing the Bar." It was March 12 
before she saw the connection. On March 13, at a sitting with 
Mrs. Piper by Mr. Piddington, Myers communicating drew lines 
which were said to represent a bar, evidently referring to Tenny- 



176 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

son's poem or indicating an attempt to make a sign at the end of 
a cross-correspondence. But nothing more of importance seems 
to have come until April 29, when Mrs. Verrall herself was present. 
At this sitting the only item of interest in this connection was a 
reference to " azure " and *' blue sea," perhaps not as cogent as 
may be desired, but apparent to careful students of the record. No 
allusion was made to Plotinus or to " Human Personality." On 
April 30, however, when Miss Johnson was present at a sitting with 
Mrs. Piper, Rector, the control, said : 

" I have seen Mr. Myers and he gave me his reply to your Greek words 
and I gave them to the other lady before you appeared. Tell her to speak 
them. All right. Homer's ' Iliad.' " 

Later in the sitting Mrs. Verrall came in; she was given the 
name Socrates and was told that it reminded the communicator 
of Homer. At first Mrs. Verrall thought the allusion to Socrates 
and Homer's " Iliad " was nonsense. '' But later in the day," says 
Mr. Piddington, " a dim impression came to Mrs. Verrall, after 
thinking it over, that in the second volume of '' Human person- 
ality," close to the passage about the vision of Plotinus in which 
occurs the translation of the words kai autos ouranos akiimon 
(Greek letters given in original) was an allusion to the famous 
vision of Socrates, in which the woman of Phthia addressed him in 
a line from the ' Iliad.' " An unmistakable allusion in Mrs. Ver- 
rall's own script of the next day. May i, to the " eagle soaring 
above the tomb of Plato " — a phrase descriptive of Plotinus, 
quoted in the ninth chapter of " Human Personality " — led her 
to investigate further with the following results. 

" In the last two chapters of * Human Personality/ twice and twice only, 
is the word ' vision ' used ; the first time, of the vision which came to Soc- 
rates in the prison house, when the ' fair and white-robed woman ' had 
* given to Achilles's words ' — ' On the third day hence thou comest to 
Phthia's fertile shore ' — 'a more sacred meaning ' ; and the second time 
of the vision of Plotinus." 

It should be added that the passage is translated in " Human Per- 
sonality," but the words of it were not mentioned in the book, so 
that any supposed reading of the book by Mrs. Piper is not a valid 
criticism. But one more message was required to complete the ref- 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 177 

erence desired by Mrs. Verrall, and that was the name of Plotinus. 
She told Mrs. Sidgwick and Miss Johnson of this defect; and, just 
when Mrs. Sidgwick intended to tell the trance personality at her 
sitting of May 6 that the name of the author was wanted, Mr. Myers, 
purporting to communicate, said. 

" Will you say to Mrs. Verrall — Plotinus." The last word was not de- 
ciphered by Mrs. Sidgwick, and was thereupon repeated in large letters, 
PLOTINUS. Mrs. Sidgwick then asked: "What is that?" and Myers 
replied: "My answer to autos ouranos akumen." \_akumon]. 

This completes the data necessary to clinch the cross-correspond- 
ence, and, whatever readers may think of its evidentiality, it bears 
unmistakable indications in its complications and indirections of 
being what it claims to be, though I can quite understand that the 
incident may seem inconclusive to those who assume that com- 
munication with the dead should be more direct and obvious, if it 
is to be convincing. 

The next instance of cross-correspondence is especially inter- 
esting because it involves the giving of the contents of a post- 
humous letter before the person who wrote it had died. By a 
posthumous letter we mean one written by a living person and 
sealed, so that no living person normally knows the contents; the 
intention is, if possible, to reveal the contents after death. The 
contents in this case purported to be given by Mr. Myers while he 
made an experiment in cross-correspondence with the contents. 
To understand the significance of the case, we should know some 
preliminary facts. 

Mr. Myers, when he read the work of Stainton Moses, was im- 
pressed by one incident, very important if genuine. Mr. Moses, 
when doing some automatic writing, asked Rector, the control, if 
he could read the contents of a book; on his answering in the af- 
firmative, Mr. Moses put him to the test, and, if we accept the ac- 
count of Mr. Moses, he succeeded in a remarkable manner. Mr. 
Moses named the book, the shelf on which it stood, the number of 
the book and the page from which he wanted some passage read. 
Mr. Moses did not himself know what was on the page. When 
Mr. Myers heard of this phenomenon, he at once thought that, if 
such a thing were possible, it would be very difficult to prove the 



178 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

identity of any discarnate spirit who gave the contents of any doc- 
ument as evidence. He at once saw the relation of the possibiHty 
to posthumous letters, and came to the conclusion that the proof of 
survival would depend upon the concordant results of a large num- 
ber of insignificant facts from different sources. He, therefore, 
based his method of deciding the question upon a system of cross- 
correspondences which should rightly articulate in illustrating the 
personal identity of a given person. After this discovery he did 
not attach so much value to posthumous letters as he had done 
before. 

After his death, evidently with some sense of humor, he pro- 
ceeded to prove his theory by giving messages which illustrate 
cross-correspondence and the obtaining of the contents of a post- 
humous letter. I summarize the facts in tabular form. On July 
13, 1904, Mr. Piddington sat down in the office of the Society and 
wrote out his posthumous letter, which contained references to the 
number seven, and expressions including it. He said that he would 
try, after death, to communicate a written number seven, adding: 
'* I should try to communicate such things as : * The seven lamps 
of architecture,' * The seven sleepers of Ephesus,' ' unto seventy 
times seven,' ' We are seven,' and so forth." He went on to say 
that he seemed to have an organic interest in the number seven, and 
that it might have made such an impression on his mind that he 
would be able to recall it as a spirit, if he survived. With this ex- 
planation and the date of the letter, the following table will explain 
itself. It represents the dates and contents of automatic writing 
through the several psychics named. 

The force of the coincidences referring to Mr. Piddington's let- 
ter will be more apparent if we quote the whole of the passage that 
came through Mrs. Verrall on July 13th, 1904. The whole pas- 
sage runs : " It is something contemporary that you are to record 
— note the hour — in London; in London half the message has 
come." Then after referring to the posthumous letters of Mr. 
Myers and Professor Sidgwick, the passage ends with a reference 
to Mr. Piddington as follows : '* Surely Piddington will see that 
this is enough and should be acted upon." 

There are certain marked weaknesses in this instance of cross- 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 

(i) THE POSTHUMOUS LETTER. 



179 



Date. 



July 13, 1904. 

July 13, 1904. 
July IS, 1904. 



Writer. 



Mr. Piddington 

Mrs. Verrall. 
Miss Verrall. 



Incidents. 



Mr. Piddington writes 
Letter. 



Possible Allu- 
sions to Letter. 



In London half 

the message has 

come. 
Contrast between 

potency of dead 

and living. 



(2) REFERENCES OF AUTOMATISTS. 



Date. 


Writer. 


Incidents. 


Possible Allu- 
sions TO Letter. 


May 8, 1908. 

May 12, 1908. 
July 23, 1908. 


Mrs. Piper. 

Mrs. Piper. 
Mrs. Holland. 


We are seven. 

Seven of us in the dis- 
tance. 

There should be seven 
in accord. 





(3) DANTEAN ALLUSIONS. 



Date. 


Writer. 


Incidents. 


Possible Allu- 
sions TO Letter, 


Aug. 6, 1907. 


Miss Verrall. 


A rainbow: the seven- 


He himself will 






fold radiance. 


seem to have 


May II, 190S. 


Miss Verrall. 


We are seven. Many 
mystic sevens. Jacob's 
ladder. Seven candles 
and seven colors in the 
rainbow. 


transferred this. 


June II, 1908. 


Mrs. Frith. 


The mystic seven and the 
golden candlestick. 




July 2'>,, 1908. 


Mrs. Holland. 


Green beyond belief — 
Green Ray. 




July 24, 1908. 


Mrs. Home. 


Seven times seven and 
seventy seven. 





(4) ASSOCIATION AND OTHER EXPERIMENTS. 



Date. 


Writer. 


Incidents. 


Possible Allu- 
sions to Letter. 


Aug. 28, 1907. 
Jan. 27, 1909. 

i- — , 


Mrs. Verrall. 
Mrs. Verrall. 


Let Piddington choose a 
sentence and send a 
part to each. 

Has Piddington found 
the bits of his sentence 
scattered among you 
all? 





i8o CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

correspondence. The dates of the incidents create a doubt about 
the intention; and the Dantean allusions, though they contain fre- 
quent mention of " sevens," do not assure us by anything said about 
their reference that they were meant to indicate Mr. Piddington. 
We have only the contents of the messages to suggest him, and 
the skeptic probably would not be satisfied that they have this 
import. But the allusion to Mr. Piddington in London and to 
the hour, with other references to sevens make it fairly probable 
that his posthumous letter, written at the time of the first reference, 
was meant. The allusion, if accepted, shows that Mr. Myers was 
trying to prove that deceased persons might read the contents of 
posthumous letters before their writers had died, and so might 
impersonate the writer. In this way, while the securing of the 
contents of posthumous letters of the living or the dead might dis- 
prove telepathy between the living, it would not prove personal 
identity and might be explained by telsesthesia or clairvoyance by 
either the living or the dead. Apparently to emphasize this theory, 
Mr. Myers, on January 2^, 1909, remarked in his message: " But 
even if the source is human, who carries the thoughts to the re- 
ceivers? Ask him that." He had mentioned Mr. Piddington in 
the message, which shows exactly the same conception of telep- 
athy as that mentioned in a message through Mrs. Chenoweth on 
November 28, 191 1, when he actually used the word " carry " for 
the process and said that it was the " guide " or '' familiar " that 
" carried " or transmitted telepathic messages. This aside, how- 
ever, the main point is that in this real or apparent cross-corre- 
spondence he is demonstrating that not the posthumous letter, but 
the articulation of bits of evidence through a large number of 
psychics, is the crucial evidence for survival. The whole episode is 
remarkable on any theory; and, quite apart from the question of 
cross-correspondences, it gives good evidence of the personal iden- 
tity of Mr. Myers. 

I think I can give some instances of cross-reference in which the 
bare statement of the facts will carry the weight of evidence. 
Those already quoted require so many explanations that many 
people will not fully appreciate their value. The main point is 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 181 

the accuracy with which they point to the literary and classical 
tastes of Mr. Myers as he was known to his colleagues. 

A lady whom I have called Mrs. Quentin, who was a person of 
good social standing in New York, was able to use the ouija board. 
At a sitting with her on October 4, 1906, four other persons being 
present and only three of us at the table, the following was spelled 
out. George Pelham purported to be present and controlling the 
messages. 

(Well, George, have you seen any of my friends recently?) 

" No, only Richard H." [Richard Hodgson, then deceased.] 

(How is H.?) 

" Progressive as ever." 

(Is he clear?) 

" Not very." 

(Do you mean when he communicates or in his normal state?) 

" Oh, all right normally. Only when he comes into that wretched at- 
mosphere he goes to pieces. Wonder how long it will take him to overcome 
this." 

(Do you see Hodgson often?) 

" Yes, our lives run in parallels." 

Mrs. Quentin knew about both George Pelham and Dr. Hodgson, 
so that this message is not evidential. The allusion to his going to 
pieces in our wretched atmosphere is pertinent, as it was quite true 
of him up to that time, in all the messages I had heard from him. 
But the passage has interest in the light of what follows. 

On the tenth of October, six days later, without revealing a word 
of my experience with Mrs. Quentin, I had a sitting with Mrs. 
Piper. Dr. Hodgson purported to communicate soon after the 
preliminaries. 

" I am Hodgson." 
(Good, Hodgson, how are you?) 
" Capital. How are you, Hyslop, old chap ? " 
(Fine.) 

" Good, glad to hear it. Did you receive my last message ? " 
(When and where?) 
" I told George to give it to you." 
(Was that recently?) 
" Yes, very." 

[After some further statements irrelevant to the present issue I put 
another question.] 

(What light was it that George spoke about?) 



i82 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

[I thought of the Smead case, expecting something would be said about 
it.] 

" He spoke about this [Mrs. Piper] and the woman you experimented 
with." 

[G. P. did speak spontaneously of the Piper case at the sitting with Mrs. 
Quentin and also made some pertinent and true statements about the 
Smead case, agreeing with what he had said about it through Mrs. Piper 
some years before; the facts had not been published and hence were not 
known to Mrs. Quentin. After a further interruption the communica- 
tion continued.] 

" Did you hear me say George ? " 

(When?) 

" At the lady's." 

(No.) 

" I said it when I heard you say Van." 

(Was that the last time I had an experiment?) 

" Yes, we do not want to make any mistake or confusion in this Hyslop." 

(Did G. P. communicate with me there?) 

"He certainly did. Wasn't that Funk?" 

(No, Funk was not there.) 

"Was it his son?" 

(No, it was not his son.) 

" It resembled him, I thought. I may be mistaken, as I have seen him 
with a light recently." 

(Do you know anything that George said to me?) 

" I cannot speak his exact words, but the idea was that we were trying 
to reach you and communicate there." 

(Do you know the method by which the messages came to us?) 

" We saw " 

[Mrs. Piper's hand ceased writing and began to move about the sheet 
of paper exactly as did the hand of Mrs. Quentin when she spelled out 
the words by the ouija board. The most striking feature of this resemblance 
was the tendency of Mrs. Piper's hand to move back to the center of the 
sheet, as Mrs. Quentin's always did after indicating a letter.] 

(That's right.) 

" You asked the board questions and they came out in letters." 

(That's right.) 

*' I saw the modus operandi well. I was pleased that George spelled 
his name. It gave me great delight. I heard you ask who was with him 
and he answered R. H." 

(I asked him how you were.) 

" He said first rate or very well. I am not sure of the exact words. Do 
you mind telling me just how the words were understood. Was it very 
well or all right? " 

(The words were ^progressive as ever.') 

"Oh yes! I do not exactly recall those words, but I heard your ques- 
tion distinctly, Hyslop. I leave no stone unturned to reach you and prove 
my identity. Was it not near water i" 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 183 

(Yes.) 

" And in a light room ? " 
(Yes; that's correct.) 
*' I saw you sitting at a table or near it." 
(Yes, right.) 

" Another man present and the light was near jou." 
(Yes.) 

" I saw the surroundings very clearly when George was speaking. I was 
taking it all in, so to speak." 

The reader can see for himself without any explanation the con- 
nection between the two sittings. I have only to say that I do not 
know any one by the name of Van and nothing was said about such 
a person at the sitting with Mrs. Quentin. Nor was Dr. Funk 
present. He might have been experimenting about that time, as 
he was doing much work on the subject. Dr. Hodgson knew 
something of the man, Mrs. Piper little or nothing. The record 
indicates the correct incidents and all that we need to know is that 
Mrs. Piper could not have known the facts. 

At the end of the message I saw my chance to have another cross- 
reference; and, as I had previously made arrangements to have a 
sitting with Mrs. Chenoweth, my first and made for me by another 
person, who did not give my name, I at once took up the matter 
as follows : — 

(Now, Hodgson, I expect to try another case this afternoon.) 
" Chenoweth." [Real name written.] 
(Yes, that's right.) 

" I shall be there, and I will refer to books and give my initials R. H. 
only as a test." 
(Good.) 
" And I will say ' books.' " 

I was alone at the Piper sitting. Mrs. Piper was in a trance, 
from which she recovered without any memory of what had hap- 
pened or has been said during it. Three hours afterward I went to 
Mrs. Chenoweth, who did not know that I had been experimenting 
that day with Mrs. Piper and who did not know who I was. The 
communication through Mrs. Chenoweth was by speech in a light 
trance, not by automatic writing. It must be remembered in read- 
ing the record that the process was pictographic and that the control 
or the subconscious must interpret the mental pictures which come 



i84 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

to his or her mind. After a few preliminaries in which I said 
nothing about my work, the following came, just after the men- 
tion of an unrecognizable name. 

" Beside him is Dr. Hodgson. It is part of a promise to come to you 
to-day, as he had just been to say to you he was trying not to be intense, 
but he is intense. I said I would come here. I am. I thought I might 
be able to tell different things I already told. Perhaps I can call up some 
past interviews and make things more clear. Several things were scattered 
around at different places. [Correct.] He says he is glad you came and 
to make the trial soon after the other." 

[I put a pair of Dr. Hodgson's gloves which I had with me in Mrs. Chen- 
oweth's hands.] 

" You know I don't think he wanted them to help him so much as he 
wanted to know that you had them. You have got something of his. It 
looks like a book, like a note book, with a little writing in it. That is only 
to let you know it." 

[At this point the subject was spontaneously changed and I permitted 
things to take their own course, and a little later the previous subject was 
resumed.] 

" There Is something he said he would do. He said : ' I would say 
like a word.' I said I would say — I know it is a word. Your name is n't 
it? [Apparently said by psychic to the communicator.] I said I would 
say — each time the word slips. [Pause.] I am afraid I can't get it. It 
sounds — looks as if it had about seven or eight letters. It is all shaky and 
wriggly, so that I can't see it yet. 

" Can't you write it down for him so I can see ? [Apparently said to 
the communicator.] C [Psychic then shakes her head. Pause. Psychic's 
fingers then write on the table.] Would it mean anything like ' Com- 
rade'?" 

(No.) 

" He goes away again." 

(All right. Don't worry.) 

" Let me take your hand." 

[Said to me: I placed my left hand in the psychic's.] 

" No good. I 'm trying to do it. I know that he has just come from 
the other place, and kept his promise to say a word." 

This passage also explains itself as an apparent, but unsuccess- 
ful, attempt to get his name. He was able to indicate that he had 
promised " at the other place " to come here. The talk about a 
book requires no explanation. But in the course of the communi- 
cations I got also a reference to '' a pen which he carried in his 
pocket." He had referred at the sitting with Mrs. Piper to a 
" stylographic pen " which he had always carried in his pocket. 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 185 

while his pencils were carried in his bag. The " stylographic pen " 
was specially kept for the Imperator personality to use in the au- 
tomatic writing through Mrs. Piper. It was, therefore, pertinent 
to mention it in both cases. 

I went again that evening to see a young girl who was just de- 
veloping psychic power. She did not know that I had had any 
sittings on that day. I had carefully concealed the fact from her 
and from her mother, purposely conducting the experiment in a 
manner to make them think I had just arrived in Boston. I put 
Dr. Hodgson's gloves into the girl's hands and she began immedi- 
ately to talk about books. The coincidence with the other two 
sittings is apparent, but I did not secure further evidence of the 
connection. 

I should perhaps add one more cross-reference, to which I have 
referred before, but which is so good that it should perhaps be re- 
peated in detail and with its complications : 

On February 7, 1900, at a sitting with Mrs. Piper, soon after I 
had had a sitting with a psychic whom I thought to be a fraud, my 
father, evidently alluding to the experiment, gave me a pass sen- 
tence in a language which Mrs. Piper did not know, and suggested 
that, unless I received it at first in any such experiments, I need not 
try for it. On March 7, 1901, I conducted an experiment with 
Mrs. Smead. She was the wife of an orthodox clergyman, exempt 
from all suspicion of trickery, and in no respect a professional 
psychic. In her trance, when my father purported to communi- 
cate, I asked for the pass sentence. After some struggle I got the 
first word of it very clearly, probably the second word, and a letter 
or two of the third, but certainly not the whole word. Mrs. Smead 
also did not know the language in which it was to be written. On 
May 31, 1902, I had a sitting with a lady whom I shall call Miss 

W , an assistant to a physician. In the course of the sitting 

the communicator came to the sentence spontaneously and without 
a hint from me. The following is the passage. 

" I doubt if I can give you the one thing you most desire this moment. 
(What do I desire this moment?) [I was not conscious of any par- 
ticular desire.] 

" The sign, well not exactly password, but the test. If you will keep 



i86 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

motionless, I can be able to give even that. I shall not be able to give 
that and much else without the full cooperation of the messenger. Let 
us not ask too much, James." 

It was called both a "password " and a " test ^' in the records of 
Mrs. Piper, which had not been published at that time. It is clearly 
referred to here, though not given, and the allusion is evident in 
the expression, " cooperation of the messenger." Imperator al- 
ways called himself a " Messenger " in the work of Stainton Moses 
and Mrs. Piper, and Miss W^ — — had seen none of the work of 
either of them. Besides, Imperator always claims to help the com- 
municator when he is present and his aid is needed. Miss W 

knew nothing of these circumstances. 

Later still, the date is not important, I had an experiment with 
another person who knew nothing about the facts, as they had not 
yet been published; and, on my asking for the pass sentence, she 
also not knowing the language in which it was to be written, I got 
the English of it. 

In quoting incidents which establish personal identity, I shall 
give first an illustration of the difficulties attending the application 
of the telepathic hypothesis to the facts. It involves events which 
happened in various parts of the world and yet purport to come 
from the only person who ever had the knowledge of them all in 
his mind. 

A lady of whom I had never heard in my life wrote me from 
Germany asking if I could recommend to her a psychic, saying 
she had lost her husband and in her distress of mind wished to be 
convinced of a future life, hoping that communications from her 
deceased husband would convince her of it, if he actually survived 
and could communicate. I replied to her inquiry that I did not 
know of any psychic in Germany, but that I could give her sittings 
when she returned to America. She replied that she could not 
come to America, but that she had a sister living in Boston who 
might take the sittings in her place. I then wrote her for name 
and address of this sister and asked her to send me an article 
wrapped in a special covering and said I would arrange for the 
sister's presence in due time. I had never heard of her husband, 
.who had been a teacher of philosophy in. a small western university 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 187 

of which also I had never heard. This institution was on the Pa- 
cific coast. He fell ill there and went to Germany, his native place, 
where he died. 

As soon as I could fix dates for sittings I did so and arranged for 
the lady's sister to see me at my hotel at a certain hour on the date 
of the first sitting. I did not tell her whom we were to see or where 
we were going. I never give sitters any information of the name or 
address of the psychic. I also put her into a trance before admitting 
the sitter. These conditions were observed on the occasions of the 
present sittings. The following facts summarize the results. 

As soon as the automatic writing began, the letter O was written, 
or the circle which had been used for the sign Omega by Professor 
James in his communications three years before. After the circle 
had occurred several times the sign of the cross was made inside 
or over it. I recognized its import but said nothing in recognition, 
though I saw no reason for its appearance on this occasion. I had 
never known nor heard of the communicator I was seeking and 
knew not whether he had any connections with Professor James. 
The sequel showed that they had been personal friends, and the 
significance of the circle and the cross was indicated in response to 
my query a little later, when I wanted the record to explain its sig- 
nificance. When the desired communicator broke down, Jennie 
P. came in to write; in the course of her automatic writing I asked 
lier what the circle and cross meant, though knowing well enough. 
Her reply was, *' W. J.", and I was satisfied that these were the 
initials of Professor James, as they have nearly always been used 
to denote him. 

' The giving of the circle and the cross was followed by a short 
communication from Imperator intimating that he soon expected to 
fulfill a desire of mine with reference to another case which I had 
brought to Mrs. Chenoweth, wanting the judgment of Imperator 
on it. Immediately following Imperator came another communi- 
cator. It took some time to make clear that I was on the right 
track. I simply let the communicator take his own course. The 
very first sentence took the right direction. 

** I will try to write for her, for it is good to have tlie chance to do so. 
We are four over here in a loving group this morning. One woman, three 



i88 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

men, all so anxious to tell her about the life we remember and the life we 
live now. There are others who wish to come, but they will wait. 

" I am not entirely new to this belief and neither is she and her own ex- 
periences ought to help at this time." 

(Yes.) 

" I know the questionings of her intellect and also her belief in the 
power, and I would not scoff nor laugh now, but rejoice that the time is 
given me to try my own power." 

(Good.) 

" I did not want too much of this talk before, but I cannot get enough of 
it now. I did not want to die. I don't know as any one does, but any way 
I wanted to live and accomplish things and finish my work, but it was no 
use, I could not weather the gale." 

The first sentence implies that it was a lady who wished to hear 
from the communicator. Of course a lady was present, and the 
critic will say that the psychic knew this and that the reference on 
that account has no significance. But we must remember that the 
psychic had not seen the sitter, neither in her normal state nor in 
her trance, and had no means of knowing whether it was a man or 
a woman who was present, unless she guessed from hyperaesthetic 
perception of her walking upstairs and into the room, or the slight 
noise from the movement of her dress when coming into the room. 
But Mrs. Chenoweth never shows this power in other instances. 
In fact she is very often normally mistaken about the situa^tion, 
sometimes thinking a person is present when he is not, or thinking 
none there w^hen a sitter is present, and sometimes, I might say al- 
ways, ignorant of the sex, unless told. Besides, a little later, after 
a few sentences, the communicator referred to the lady who wished 
to hear from him as " belonging to me," an expression constantly 
used in this work to denote husband or wife, and hence not ap- 
plying to the sitter, though a guessing medium might try the phrase 
for leverage. But he soon remarked that his " father was over 
here," which was true of the communicator. Soon after this state- 
ment and some general and non-evidential messages the communi- 
cator gave up and was followed by Jennie P. 

As soon as I could ask Jennie P. what the circle and cross meant, 
she replied by the initials "W. J.," which were correct. She then 
made some flings, in her humorous way, at cross-references, and 
then proceeded with the following statements : 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 189 

" Did you know that the lady is psychic ? " 

(No, I did not.) 

" She has had some experiences of her own. I do not mean with othef 
lights, but alone, and she really has clairvoyant power, if it were only 
unfolded; but she is one of those cautious kind and does not want to let 
her imagination run away with her. Do you know anything about a 
mother in the spirit? " 

(Yes, his mother is dead.) [Sitter nodded head.] 

" And there is such a desire on her part to come here to-day. She has 
been gone some time and she has not much acquaintance with this sort 
of business. Is that true?" 

(That is correct.) [Sitter nodded head.] 

The communicator's wife, not present but in Europe, is quite 
psychic, a fact that I did not know at the time. I learned it from 
inquiries after the sitting. She had had a number of experiences 
of her own and it was probably these that induced her to apply to 
me. She distrusted her own experiences, fearing that they were 
imagination or subconscious action. Her mother was dead, a fact 
not known to me, but known to the sitter. Her mother was of a 
very religious nature and had known nothing of these phenomena. 

The communications went on with some correct, though not 
striking, statements about this mother, among them that the com- 
municator had '' a deep reverence for his mother." This was fol- 
lowed by a reference to the sitter implying, though not asserting, 
that she was his wife. Jennie P., acting as an intermediary, made 
the statement with this implication and I did not correct it. I then 
asked what the nature of his work was and the answer by Jennie 
P. was that it was " philosophical " and that " he philosophized 
about everything." This was true. He was a teacher of the sub- 
ject. General messages of a non-evidential character followed, 
until I was asked whether I knew any one named William with 
whom the communicator was associated. I replied by the query 
whether it was *' W. J." and Jennie P. at once answered that she 
did not know it was he and proceeded to say that she would leave, 
but finished with the statement : 

"Just as I said I go, he put his hand to his mouth and I saw a cavity 
as if one or two teeth had been extracted and the funny part of it was that 
I saw him take them out himself. It looks as if he had something happen 
to his teeth. Did he have a tooth which he lost and had replaced by a 
new one ? " 



190 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

(I don't know.) 

" It seems to be a space about big enough for one, perhaps two, but not 
more than that and here is something about some dentistry which involved 
that space." 

This incident came suddenly and apparently irrelevantly. Of it 
the widow writes : " He lacked just one tooth, but the cavity was 
not visible. He had, however, a tooth filled in Portland, Oregon, 
about a year ago, and was very much dissatisfied with the dentist 
and refused to pay the exorbitant price he asked." 

Nothing more came in the automatic writing, but the first thing 
that appeared in the subliminal stage of the recovery was the 
capital letter T., which was the initial of his name. The subliminal, 
however, suspected the name Theodore, which was the name of the 
communicator of the week before. I denied that this was correct 
when asked by the subliminal if it was, but I said no more. 

The automatic writing of the next day began with general ob- 
servations on the communicator's new life and experiences, as if he 
were merely practising until he could get control ; he then made an 
allusion to my desire for evidence and at once began the effort to 
give it. 

" There was a great deal of pain in my head. I could not seem to think 
clearly, so much confusion, you know what I mean." 

(Yes perfectly.) 

" And the confusion of ideas made everything seem unreal and some 
of the things I said were meaningless, like one talking in his sleep. Still 
I was not asleep nor yet irresponsible entirely. It seemed as if there were 
more people about than there really were, but just at the last moment there 
was peace and hush and no more hurrying to and fro. I longed for home." 

Mrs. Tausch writes in regard to this statement that he did suffer 
a great deal of pain in the head and that a short time before his 
death he was delirious and talked incoherently at the last. When 
she arrived at his side she was not sure that he recognized her. 
There were only two at his side when he died, Mrs. Tausch and her 
sister-in-law. 

The messages continued immediately with reminiscences of the 
last illness, one or two of much interest. The allusion to his long- 
ing for home implied that he died away from it, a fact which I did 
not know. But to help make the allusion clear I began with a 
question. 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 191 

(Did you not pass away at home?) 

" No, I did not mean that I was away from home, so much as that 
it was not Uke home at all and the noise of the feet on the floor troubled 
me. You know what I mean, the footsteps, first on the carpet, then on 
something bare. 

*' I wish to recall something gray which was thrown about me as I was 
lifted up to take something from a cup. It was only a partial lifting but 
this gray garment was over my shoulders. So weak I could not do it 
myself." 

He then evidently attempted to refer to his mother, who was 
dead, and then referred to his children as living. 

He left two children when he died. He died, not at his home in 
America, but at his old home in Germany. Mrs. Tausch thinks that 
walking on the floor disturbed him, but she was not a personal 
witness of the fact. He was constantly getting up and sitting 
wrapped in his mother's gray dressing-gown. It is probable that he 
drank medicine or nutriment from a cup. Outside of his sick room 
was a pretty scene. It was a picturesque village with an old convent 
in view. Of the children he said they needed him more as an ad- 
visor than as provider. The reverse was true. They needed his 
provision more than his advice at their young age. But he went 
on with his message. 

" I wish to prove to them all that I was not a fool to be interested in 
this belief of spirit. You know what I mean." 
(Yes.) 

" It is not so easy to prove as it is to believe." 
(Yes, that is right.) 

" I also had some records I had been much interested in." 
(Yes, do you mean they were your own?) 
" No." 
(Whose?) 

" Others. My personal experience was limited." 
(Yes, do you know whose records they were?) 
" Yes, J. had some." 
(Let me be sure what the J. is for?) 
" My friend James." 

Now Professor James was a friend of the communicator, and 
Mrs. Tausch wrote in response to my inquiries that Professor 
James had given them records to read and that they had done so. 
Of course I knew nothing of this fact, and indeed nothing of the 
man and his life. 



192 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

This message was followed by a reference to a long country 
road with birch trees on its sides, a stone wall, and the road wind- 
ing round a hill. 

He intimated also that he had suffered from shortness of breath, 
apparently caused by climbing the hill referred to. Mrs. Tausch 
says he did walk over such a road the last year of his life, but there 
were no birches on it. He suffered from shortness of breath, 
caused by asthma, not by climbing the hill, though the latter would 
probably produce the same effect. He then referred to his wife 
with an initial B., which is a letter in her name, but not significant 
here. He referred to himself as a philosopher, which was correct, 
and then to " some things near an old furnace," which could not be 
verified. He referred to Harvard and Columbia Universities, 
claiming to be a graduate of Harvard, which ke was not. But he 
had visited both universities and knew the head of the philosophy 
department at Columbia. He referred to the name Fiske and con- 
nected it with a place which he said his wife would know, saying 
that the man was dead. He had patronized the Fiske Teachers' 
Agency. I have not been able to verify the death of the man. 
But he went on with other incidents. 

" Does she remember how I used to fuss about clocks ? I wanted them 
to be right. Does she not know what I mean ? " 

(She does not know.) [Sitter, sister-in-law, shook her head, knowing 
nothing about his private and domestic life.] 

"I was always fixing things. [Hand then seized the article on the 
table which was a purse enclosed in oiled silk.] My purse." 

(Yes.) [Might have detected it by touch.] 

" Well, well, that ought to bring a man to his senses. I am getting hold 
a little now, but is it not hard work ? " 

(Yes.) 

" My books, does she not know about my books and library, so many of 
them which have been annotated for use. T h T." [Pencil fell and con- 
trol lost.] 

Mrs. Tausch says that he did fuss about the clocks a great deal, 
especially a cuckoo clock which he always wound up. As to an- 
notating his books Mrs. Tausch says : '' Well, he was the greatest 
man for that. He always read with pencil in hand/' 

The letter is the initial of his name and *' h " the last letter in it. 
As he came to the end of his message he evidently tried to sign 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 193 

his name, but broke down, and the automatic writing came to a 
close. 

In the subHminal recovery, reference was made to '' Rome in 
New York." The sitter knew no reason for referring to it, but 
Mrs. Tausch, though she could give no special meaning to it, said 
that he had travelled about New York State lecturing in various 
places, and Rome may have been one of them. A further refer- 
ence was made to Niagara Falls and Mt. Tom with a house on 
it. Also a yellow building was described, with the intimation that 
it was on Mt. Tom. This house is not recognized by Mrs. Tausch, 
as having any meaning, nor has the reference to Niagara Falls. 
But Professor Tausch visited Little Falls, in New York, and, in a 
mental picture, which was the method of communication employed 
here, this mistake might easily occur and influence the subliminal. 
Mt. Tom Mrs. Chenoweth knew nothing about save that such a 
place existed. It seems that the reference to Mt. Tom has no 
relevance to Professor Tausch, but he had visited Mt. Chocorua, 
on which there is a conspicuous house. Mrs. Chenoweth knew the 
latter very well, having taught in that locality. 

At the beginning of the next sitting, after a few general remarks 
while getting control, the communicator gave the following in- 
cident : 

" Do you know about a man younger than I, still alive in your world, 

most near to me and my work, C yes C and I want to write about 

something which was done by a group of men in connection with my 
death, resolutions and something in the way of a tribute which was sent 
by my associates to the family. You know about that." 

[I asked the sitter whether she knew about this, but she shook her 
head.] 

(I don't know. I shall inquire elsewhere.) 

" Yes, I knew about it and it was a pretty thing to do and I wonder if 
she knows who M is, alive. Ask her M." 

(Yes.) [Sitter nodded head and said: "My name is " ... I waved 
my hand before she uttered it and stopped her.] 

" Dear to me and alive, that is what I mean." 

(What relation to you is this M?) 

" When you ask a question, every spirit in the room begins to answer 
mentally and that knocks the pins out from under me. You know I told 
you it seemed to be a mental process and every man here has his head 
on his shoulders and hears your question. I will do the best I can." 



194 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

Later the relationship was stated, and the message went on with 
a new incident to be given presently. The initial of the lady present 
was M. I did not know it myself. But it is the incident given 
just prior to this initial that is most interesting. The sitter knew 
nothing about it and Mrs. Tausch writes me regarding it, 

*' His death was published in Ohio papers and I was asked by a 
former fellow-professor — not a close friend — whose first name 
was Clement, to send biographical notes of his life. Besides there 
came a great many letters of condolence with handsome tributes to 
him." The communicator's position as a teacher was, as indicated, 
in Oregon, not Ohio, so that the incidents here mentioned refer to 
friends who knew him in another State. 

Without a break then the new incident was taken up : 

" I want to speak about a glass and a small bag in which I carried papers, 
manuscripts, and the glass was a magnifying, reading glass. Ask her if 
she recalls either of those, the bag I used to put other things in, but the 
papers went to the bottom always." 

(I shall ask about it.) 

" And I recall trying to do some work just before I came here. That 
you probably know already." 

(I myself do not know it, and perhaps you had best .tell just what it 
was.) 

" I had planned and arranged to do some particular work and tried to 
complete it, but it was beyond my strength." 

Mrs. Tausch writes regarding these incidents : " He carried a 
bag in which he put his manuscripts. He did not use a magnifying 
glass, but carried eye glasses in his bag and always lost them. He 
had planned an essay on * The Relation Between Science and Re- 
ligion.' But he died before he could do anything with it. An 
American college offered a prize for such." 

It is probable that the eye glasses magnified somewhat, so that 
Mrs. Tausch, not understanding the pictographic process of com- 
municating, may not have noticed the approximate truth of the 
communication. 

There followed a long passage which had many characteristic 
hits in it, though mainly expressed in isolated words. For in- 
stance, he referred to ethics and his interest in the subject, which 
his wife says was one of his passions. He also intimated his rea- 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 195 

son for staying in the church though his own creed was too Hberal 
for strict adherence, and he gave as his reason for remaining in the 
church against 'his liberal creed that it was better to be associated 
with the good than with those who disregarded it. This was true 
of his career in life. The name Lizzie came in the same connection ; 
it was the name (Elizabeth) of his living wife; he said that she was 
alive. The sitter, however, thought he was giving the name " Les- 
lie," which she recognized, and so spoiled the completion of the 
reference. He described a brick church, but the wife does not re- 
call it. 

Then came the effort to give his name. I got, without any help 
on my part, variously Taussh, Tauch, and Taush, once " Tucah '* 
and once " Tach." The reader will see that I got all the letters and 
two or three times the name phonetically. I then began speaking 
German to him and I got a few disjointed replies in German, among 
them the relationship of the sitter to him : " Geschwister," and a 
few other words. Mrs. Chenoweth does not know German, save 
four words : " Federmesser," and " Wie viel Uhr," the latter of 
which she speaks incorrectly. 

Then a reference was made in the subliminal to the railway and 
a long trip, and the statement was made that after his death his 
body was taken on a railway. This was not correct. Perhaps the 
whole passage should be quoted. 

" Do you know where there is a long stretch of railroad track ? '* 

(No.) 

" A long long track." 

(Where?) 

" Oh, I don't know. Wait a minute. Has there been a spirit here whose 
body was taken on a railroad 'track after his death ? " 

(No.) [Sitter shook her head to my inquiry.] 

(That spirit who has been here did not have his body on the train, but 
perhaps some friend of his did.) 

" No, it seems connected with him, connected with him just near his 
death. I can't get it very clearly. I seem to want to go to his grave. 
There are two or three trees there that look like evergreens and are in 
some sort of a conical shape right near his grave. They don't grow that 
way, but are cut in conical shape." 

Professor Tausch took a long railway trip from Oregon via 
Quebec to Germany just before he died and was physically ex- 



196 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

hausted by it. He returned to Germany because of bad health in 
connection with asthma. Probably this incident got confused with 
the reference to his grave, as he was trying, pictographically, to 
give an account of these last events. Mrs. Tausch knew nothing 
about the evergreens and so I asked her to have photographs taken 
of his grave. This was in Silesia. She directed that my request 
be fulfilled and when I received the photographs conical shaped 
evergreens were visible not far from the man's grave. 

There were minor points of interest, but it would require thg^ 
whole record and much comment to bring out their significance. 
What I want to emphasize is the fact that the incidents required con- 
firmation by correspondence with Mrs. Tausch, who was in Ger- 
many and who was the only person who knew the facts, and even 
she did not know some of them, inquiry having to be made in 
Silesia to verify them. The believer in telepathy will have to stretch 
that theory inordinately to meet the situation, and that is the value 
of the facts ; namely, that they put that process to its wits' end to 
vindicate its rationality. 

Another case is interesting because it involves something like a 
cross-correspondence or cross-reference, and also contains a com- 
plication of some interest because of the connection between re- 
mote personalities. 

A man in the practice of international law had a lady, Miss De 
Camp, as his secretary. She developed automatic writing and was 
soon writing stories purporting to come from the late Frank R. 
Stockton, who had died in 1902. Miss De Camp's work began in 
1909. The stories were sufficiently like those of Mr. Stockton, 
despite subconscious influences, to enable Mr., Henry Alden, the 
editor of '' Harper's Monthly," to say that they were " very real." 
Mr. John R. Meader, who had specially studied Stockton, said 
that the stories were " very characteristic." There were occasional 
indications of personal identity in the expression as well as the plot 
of the stories. But, as Miss De Camp had read " The Lady or the 
Tiger " when she was a small child, though nothing else of Stock- 
ton's, we had to allow for the possible influence of latent subcon- 
scious knowledge. When I learned that the New York " World " 
was going to publish some of the stories, I resolved to make some 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 197 

cross-reference experiments before the stories were made public. 
I therefore took Miss De Camp to Boston and had her registered 
in a hotel under an assumed name. I then took her to Mrs. Cheno- 
v/eth under the conditions so often described. Miss De Camp en- 
tered the room after Mrs. Chenoweth was in the trance, and left it 
before Mrs. Chenoweth recovered normal consciousness. 

At the first sitting the name '* Frank " came. This was re- 
ferred to several times before he communicated directly; then I 
got the name " Frank Richard Stockton," with some confusion 
about Richard at first. This was the middle name, not consciously 
known to either myself or Miss De Camp. He also gave Francis, 
which was his real name, not given in the *' Century Dictionary." 
He then told when and where he died; namely, in Washington, 
D. C, in April, He discussed at some length the work he was 
doing with Miss De Camp, showing that he was the source of her 
stories, whatever allowances be made for the influence of her sub- 
conscious, which, it must be said, is not apparent to any large 
extent. 

There were many touches of personal character and wit, though 
these were probably colored by the influence of the control and the 
subconscious of Mrs. Chenoweth ; but one passage in this vein will 
be interesting and serve as an example of many more. I had 
brought up the question of skeptical critics in order to make him 
see, as a communicator, the necessity of evidence for personal 
identity more specific than a general avowal of what he was doing 
through Miss De Camp. 

" I really have a desire to do a certain kind of work, but deliver me from 
the class who cut up their relatives to see how their corpuscles match up. 

" I think I won't do for your business at ^11, but personally I have no 
fight with you. You can go on and save all the critics you can, but don't 
send them to me when they die." 

(All right.) 

" For I would make no heavenly kingdom for them. I had my share of 
them while I lived, and I wash my hands of the whole lot." 

(I understand.) 
. " I do remember some pleasant times I had with my little friend when 
I was alive. That sounds like an Irishman's toast, does n't it ; for I would 
hardly be talking unless I were alive. Do you know the Irishman's 
toast?" 



198 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

(I don't think I do.) 

" May you live to see the green grass growing nver your grave. Do 
you see the comparison ? " 

There is much that is more evidential than this passage, but it 
would require too much explanation to quote it here. The next 
point of interest is the appearance of the man v^ho had introduced 
me to Miss De Camp. He v^as Mr. George F. Duysters. When 
living, he had taken his secretary, Miss De Camp, v^ith the family 
on a strolling trip in the mountains, and Miss De Camp had asked 
for a drawing of the scene where they had camped near a stream 
of water. Mr. Duysters was a good draftsman, and drew a rough 
sketch of the place, intending some day to finish it. It consisted 
of a hollow stump with a charred hole in its side, some lines for 
the stream of water, an outline of a small fir tree, the covered wagon 
with three circles for the wheels. It was put away for keeping. 
But before he had finished the drawing, Mr. Duysters died. Soon 
afterward he purported to communicate through Miss De Camp, 
and one day she heard a voice say, " Fetch the picture and I will 
finish it." Miss De Camp got it and taking her pencil automatically 
finished the picture. She drew a double tree on the stump, drew 
the pot and hook used for cooking their meals, drew the dishes on 
the rectangular outline which represented the table cloth, the mean- 
ing of which she had not noticed in the drawing, finished the fir 
tree, put in the stones, bank and lines for the water in the stream, 
inserted the spokes in the circles for the wheels, drew the fourth 
wheel, and behind the wagon made a tree to which they had hitched 
the horse. I had all this, picture and all, in my files before I took 
Miss De Camp to the sitting. 

But Mr. Duysters and the drawing and the scene itself were so 
well known to Miss De Camp that I could attach no evidential value 
to the communication from him and the finishing of the picture 
through Miss De Camp. However, he appeared through Mrs. 
Chenoweth and gave his full name, George F. Duysters; and, as 
soon as this was done and because it was the last sitting, I at once 
put to him a query to see if I could get a reaction bearing more 
completely on his personal identity, with the following result. 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 199 

(Do you remember drawing a picture for the lady?) 

" Yes, I do, and I will try and do more some time. I have tO' have more 
exact conditions, more than some, but I can work at some places and some 
times." 

(Yes, what was that picture?) 

" Trees and water, you know, and that is the sort I like. It was an illus- 
tration of a time and place of other days. I will come again to her and 
here also, but I cannot stay now. I finished it. Yes I finished it, the 
picture, I mean." 

(I understand perfectly.) 

" I thought you meant the name, George F. Duysters." 

It is especially significant that both personalities should appear 
to communicate. They are not in any way connected with each 
other in life, and neither of them were relatives of Miss De 
Camp. 

There is another complicated incident which is practically an 
instance of cross-reference, but is quoted here because of its rela- 
tion to the associated physical phenomena, and the difficulties of ex- 
plaining it by the telepathic hypothesis. 

I had given a lady some sittings with Mrs. Chenoweth. The 
first four of them were quite unsatisfactory. This was in Decem- 
ber, 1 91 2. The fourth sitting was on Monday. On Tuesday 
morning I was awakened in my hotel by hearing raps on the head- 
board of the bed in which I was sleeping. I suspected that the 
noise was made by my breathing or heart action on the springs 
of the bed, though I had never heard them before in spite of the 
fact that I had slept for years in that bed. I determined to test the 
matter and lay perfectly still, trying not to move a muscle, and at 
intervals stopping and starting my breathing. When I discovered 
that the raps often continued when I had stopped breathing and 
stopped at times though the breathing went on, I saw that the 
breathing was not the cause of them. I then asked a mental 
question: ''Is any one rapping?" There immediately followed 
three loud raps, the second and third having a very short interval. 
I then again asked a mental question : " Will you spell out a mes- 
sage?" The answer was a whole volley of raps on the bureau 
ten feet distant. They could not have been produced by my breath- 
ing or heart action. I then began slowly to go over the alphabet 



200 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

mentally; that is, without saying the letters aloud. When I reached 
certain letters there was a single distinct rap; this occurred at the 
letters which spelled cat. When this was done the raps ceased. 

In the morning I wrote out an account of what had happened, 
and then experimented on the bed, first by lying down on it and 
shaking my body in various ways to see if I could produce sim- 
ilar noises on the springs ; but I totally failed to produce any such 
sounds. I then kneaded the bed with my hands in every direction, 
and failed again. I then tapped on the headboard of the bed with 
my knuckles, and obtained exactly the same quality of sound that 
had occurred in the raps. I wrote out these facts in the record. 

On the way to the sitting I told the lady what had happened ; she 
showed decided interest, but did not tell me why. Arriving at the 
place for the sitting, the sitter, as usual, waited down stairs until 
Mrs. Chenoweth had gone into the trance, and was then admitted. 
In the subliminal stage of the trance, Mrs. Chenoweth saw an ap- 
parition of Dr. Hodgson. He lingered, and as I had not heard 
from him for a long time, I bethought myself that he had some 
reason for appearing. I therefore asked him, through the psychic, 
of course, if he wanted to say anything; the answer was, that he 
and G. P. were trying to " give undeniable proof of identity to his 
mother and some post mortem facts which would clear up the 
mystery." The pronoun " his " was the first intimation of person- 
ality at this series of sittings, and referred, as later allusions show, 
to the deceased son, from whom the sitter wanted to hear. I then 
asked Dr. Hodgson if '' he knew whether any one was in my room 
last night"; the answer was, that he himself had been there, but 
" was merely a spectator of a manifestation made by Jennie P., one 
of the controls." The subconscious then got the impression that 
some moving object was involved, and, though this impression was 
wrong, I did not correct it. Automatic writing then followed. 
After preliminaries, the communicator said *' the boy was there," 
meaning in the room, and said he wanted to do so much. But Dr. 
Hodgson did not succeed in telling me exactly what had happened. 
In a few moments the control evidently changed and I got the 
words: "Was ich eine mutter," [What I a mother] and my de- 
ceased wife followed with the statement: '' I thought I could write 



EXPERIMENTAL INCIDENTS 201 

something myself." She knew German well; Mrs. Chenoweth did 
not know it at all. Then there was again a change of control and 
the boy began communicating in the automatic writing. He soon 
wrote : '' I knew if I could knock or rap then that you would take 
notice and it would be a good evidential . . . ," and then went on 
making allusion to the noises and their purpose. In a few mo- 
ments came the following words: "Was ich die Katzie," imper- 
fect German for " what I the cats." The boy also had known 
German, I learned later, but the mother, not knowing it, did not 
appreciate this allusion until it was converted immediately into 
English by the communicator, who added : "I thought you would 
see [that] the meaning of any unusual sound was always the cat." 
The sitter at once broke down sobbing, as she saw the point, but 
did not explain a feature in the incident which I did not know at 
the time. After we left the house she told me that for the previous 
two months and for the first time in her life, she had been so deeply 
interested in cats that her petting them and giving them catnip on 
the street had brought them into trouble with the police who, think- 
ing they had hydrophobia, had taken them to the pound. She had 
never before had any interest in cats. 

I then told her that, years before, when I had stayed all night 
at her home in a Western city, I had been awakened in the morning 
by hearing raps on my pillow, and that I turned over and over again 
to stop them, without success. I added that I had written out an 
account of the facts and filed it without telling her about the inci- 
dent. She admitted that I had not told her, and added that the 
boy had died in that room — a fact, of course, which I did not 
know. 

The complex interest of these facts is apparent without explana- 
tion on my part, except that we can hardly account for the raps in 
my room at the hotel by telepathy, and we cannot accuse the medium 
of fraud without implicating myself as in collusion with her. The 
sitter will testify that I did not know of her interest in cats, so that 
it appears as if the interest itself had been instigated on the other 
side and the rest of the phenomena planned to get results which 
would prove to the sitter's suspicious mind — for she was very 
suspicious — that the facts would have no easy explanation. The 



202 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

chief interest of the incident is just that fact. It does not prove 
the personal identity of the boy. It proves only the association 
of mental and physical phenomena, unless you wish to regard the 
raps as hallucinatory. I should not object to that. They sys- 
tematically spelled out the word cat, and were veridical, as the ex- 
periment at cross-reference showed; as hallucinations they would 
have the same evidential import as genuine physical phenomena, 
in so far as spiritistic explanations are concerned. The main point 
is their complexity and the difficulty of normal explanation. 



CHAPTER XIV 
ROBERT SWAIN GIFFORD 

THE present chapter will summarize a set of phenomena 
which I have usually described as the " Thompson Gil- 
ford Case." It is not necessary to regard it as giving a 
final solution of the problems which it suggests; it is presented 
here for the sake of its psychological interest and any other con- 
clusion which it may help to establish. The case came to my at- 
tention in the manner described below ; in giving the account of it 
I shall follow the chronological order of events. 

Some time in the summer and fall of 1905, Mr. Frederic L. 
Thompson, who was a goldsmith, not an artist, was suddenly and 
inexplicably seized with an impulse to sketch and paint pictures. 
Accompanying this impulse were numerous hallucinations or visions 
of trees and landscapes which served as models for his work. 

Mr. Thompson had had no training in art. He had obtained 
only the slight education which the public schools give a boy until 
he was thirteen years of age. He had had a few lessons in draw- 
ing, such as the public school give. He then had to go to work, 
and was employed as an apprentice at engraving. He served at 
this work for some years. His employers discovered that he had 
some taste at sketching, and the foreman of the department en- 
couraged this as a means of helping Mr. Thompson at his engrav- 
ing. While employed at this task, Mr. Thompson formed what 
may be called a partnership with an artist to turn photographs into 
oils. Mr. Thompson did none of the finishing; his partner, Mr. 
Macy, executed the artistic work of the paintings. Only a few 
photographs were finished in this manner, as the work did not 
prove remunerative. This was the last of Mr. Thompson's ex- 
periences with anything like painting until, in the summer of 1905, 

the impulse seized him to sketch and paint. The meantime was 

203 



204 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

spent in his work as a goldsmith, which he took up in New York 
City after he left New Bedford, Massachusetts. His experience 
with turning photographs into oils had taken place a number of 
years before. 

It is apparent that he had had no education nor important ex- 
perience in painting, so that whatever merits his painting may have 
do not represent the usual result of education and practice. When 
he was seized with the impulse to sketch and paint he seemed to lose 
his interest in the work of a goldsmith and began to show some 
unusual powers as an artist in oils. While he did this work he 
often felt that he was Mr. Gifford, Robert Swain Gifford, and re- 
marked to his wife at times, " Gifford wants to sketch." He did 
not know at this time that Mr. Gifford was dead. He had some 
years before been slightly acquainted with Mr. Gifford, having met 
him once or twice on the marshes about New Bedford while Mr. 
Gifford was sketching there, Mr. Thompson himself being out 
hunting. He talked with him a few minutes only on one of these 
occasions, and on the others merely saw him sketching. Once he 
called on Mr. Gifford in New York to show him some jewelry, but 
saw nothing more of him. 

Between the period indicated, the summer and autumn of 1905, 
and the latter part of January, 1906, Mr. Thompson kept on at his 
sketching and painting. In the latter part of January he saw 
notice of an exhibition of the late R. Swain Gifford's paintings at 
the American Art Galleries and went in to see them. He learned 
at this time and not before, that Mr. Gifford was dead. Mr. Gif- 
ford had died on January 15, 1905, some six months before the 
impulse seized Mr. Thompson to sketch and paint. While looking 
at Mr. Gifford's paintings on exhibition he seemed to hear a voice, 
apparently issuing from the invisible, say, " You see what I have 
done. Can you not take up and finish my work? " This incident 
may be treated as an hallucination or as a fabrication, unless evi- 
dence can be produced to make it credible. Whether genuine or 
not it had sufficient influence on the mind of Mr. Thompson to 
induce him to go on with his sketching and painting. From this 
time on the impulse to paint was stronger, and between this date 
and the next year he produced a number of paintings of artistic 



ROBERT SWAIN GIFFORD 205 

merit sufficient to demand a fair price on their artistic qualities alone, 
his story being concealed from all but his wife. 

In January, 1907, Mr. Thompson came to me with the fear that 
his visions and hallucinations were threatening his sanity. He had 
been constantly the subject of them ever since he saw the exhibi- 
tion of Gifford pictures, and a scene of gnarled oak trees haunted 
him perpetually, with the strong impulse to paint them. He drew 
several sketches of them, but the insistence of these visions made 
him begin to doubt the normal condition of his mind. I interro- 
gated him for two hours on all aspects of his experiences, which 
included the story just told. As I saw no evidence of anything 
supernormal in the account, I diagnosed it as disintegrating per- 
sonality, that is, some type of hallucination and a symptom of 
mental disturbance. I advised him not to continue the work of 
painting, but to go on with his vocation as goldsmith, as I could 
not see any reason to believe that he could well earn his living in 
painting, especially if he had to explain how he did his work. Be- 
sides, I feared that the tendency, if not due to morbid mental condi- 
tions, would not last. But, since it would require time to prove 
whether the case was one of morbid hallucinations, and since we 
might never know, until an autopsy would show, what the real 
trouble was, it occurred to me that I might take a shorter path for 
finding out what was the trouble. The incident of hearing a 
voice in the American Art Galleries suggested that view of the 
case which many instances on record in the publications of the 
English Society for Psychical Research indicate, namely, the hy- 
/ pothesis that the dead may occasionally intrude their influence 
upon the living. There was no evidence of this in the story of 
the voice as Mr. Thompson narrated it. But I saw that an in- 
teresting set of alternatives was placed before me. I had no way 
of proving that his visions and the voice were purely subjective 
hallucinations without waiting, possibly for years, to watch their 
development. On the other hand, it suddenly came into my mind 
that I might test the matter in a very simple manner. I thought 
that, if the hallucinations were really inspired by the source appar- 
ently claimed for them, I ought to get traces of Mr. Gifford through 
a medium. If I did not get any trace of him the presumption 



2o6 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

would be all the stronger that the phenomena were ordinary and 
not supernormal. As a consequence I asked Mr. Thompson if he 
had ever seen or consulted a medium. He replied that he had not 
and that he always despised the subject of spiritualism, laughing at 
it with others. I further asked if he would go with me to a medium, 
and he replied in the affirmative. 

This was on January i6, 1907. I immediately arranged for a 
sitting to take place on the second evening after this, the i8th. I 
did not tell Mr. Thompson whom he was to see nor where we were 
going. I had him meet me at my house at a suitable hour and 
took him to a medium whom I here call Mrs. Rathbun. I intro- 
duced him as Mr. Smith and took the notes myself, also requiring 
Mr. Thompson not to say anything and not to ask any questions 
until I signified permission. In a few minutes after we sat down 
the medium apparently described some one whom Mr. Thompson 
recognized as his grandmother, the evidence not being of the kind 
to assure any one of its genuineness, and then allusion was made 
to a man behind him who was said to be fond of painting. No hint 
whatever had been given of either Mr. Thompson's character or the 
nature of his experiences. Mr. Gifford was described in terms 
recognizable by Mr. Thompson, and in a few minutes the locality 
of Mr. Gifford's birth was described, and a group of oak trees, even 
to the fallen branches and the color of the leaves that had ap- 
peared in his apparitions. The communicator said that it was a 
place near the ocean, that it was not England, but that you had to 
take a boat to the locality. It was this group of trees that had 
haunted Mr. Thompson's vision for eighteen months, and that he 
had described in our conversation two evenings before. The real 
group was afterward found in the locality described. It was on 
one of the Elizabeth Islands on the New England coast. (See Fig. 

ni.) 

The outcome of this experiment pacified Mr. Thompson's mind 
and relieved my own, as to the cause of his hallucinations, and he 
resolved to go on with his painting. Before this time he had 
painted only six or eight pictures, but had a large number of sketches, 
rather crude, all of them, sketches and paintings, being based on 
his visions. Without telling the story pi his experiences, he 



ROBERT SWAIN GIFFORD 207 

showed some of his paintings to a few persons interested in art and 
sold two or three of them. One he sold to Mr. James B. Townsend 
on its merits and without telling his story. In the course of his 
examination of the picture, Mr. Townsend remarked that the paint- 
ing resembled those of R. Swain Gifford; Mr. Thompson then told 
him something of his story. Soon afterwards he sold another 
painting, under similar circumstances, to Dr. Alfred Miiller, who 
was pleased with the excellence of the work. This experience, 
with the encouragement offered by my experiment with the psychic, 
led him to continue serving the impulse which haunted him. 

While Mr. Thompson went on with his work I resolved to make 
a second mediumistic experiment. I was experimenting at the time 
with Mrs. Chenoweth, and brought Mr. Thompson to a sitting. 
He was not admitted to the room until after Mrs. Chenoweth had 
gone into the trance, and left it before she came out of the trance, 
so that at no time in her normal state did she see or hear him. At 
this first sitting some twenty incidents of a coincidental character 
were told, many of them bearing on the personal identity of Mr. 
Gifford. Among them was a reference to his fondness for rugs 
and rich and flesh colors, a reference to a tarpaulin which it was 
his habit to wear when boating and painting, and more or less 
definite accounts of his relation to Mr. Thompson, the sitter. The 
latter could not be given any important evidential value, as some 
things were said, or implied by Mr. Thompson's questions, which 
might have suggested this influence to the subconsciousness of the 
medium. The facts mentioned about Mr. Gifford' s private habits 
are more suggestive ; but there were incidents even more pertinent 
than these. Reference was made to his sudden death, his unfinished 
work, to the condition of his studio, to apparently the same woman 
who had appeared in the experiment with Mrs. Rathbun, to misty 
scenes, which were a favorite with Mr. Gifford, and finally to the 
same group of trees and their locality mentioned above. This 
passage should be quoted. 

Mr. Thompson said to the psychic: " There is a picture of an 
old group of trees near the ocean. I would like to get it. Can 
you see it?" He had reference to his vision as before described, 
and said too much about it for any details to have evidential value. 



2o8 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

Mr. Thompson thought that possibly Mr. Gifford had painted such 
a picture, but he wanted to find where the trees could be found that 
he might paint them himself. He assumed rightly enough that, if 
Mr. Gifford were actually present, he might tell where the trees 
could be found and something about them. The following was the 
result of the inquiry, taken down by a stenographer at the time, 
the matter in parentheses representing what Mr. Thompson said : 

" Do you think that it is one that he is giving you ? " 

(I think it is, yes. I feel that I must go out into nature and paint those 
trees.) 

" I want to tell you, little boy, I think he has seen the trees and I think 
he is giving you the picture of it. I think you will see them too. I don't 
know the place, but it looks like that to me. When you go up here on this 
hill, as I told you about, and ocean in front of you it will be tO' your left, 
and you will go down a little incline, almost a gulley, and then up a little 
bit and a jut out. This is just the way it seems. Now you have this so 
that you can follow, can't you? They look like gnarled old trees. There 
is one that stands up quite straight, and some roots that you can see, not 
dead, but part dead. Some are roots and gnarled and then the rest. They 
are nice." 

(Beautiful coloring.) 

" O, beautiful ! But that is what you will get if you are right on the 
spot. You will get those soft colors, just like this old rug, that he likes very 
much that has some soft colors." 

When the group of trees was finally found it was proved that 
this description was perfectly accurate, though it probably would 
not have led any one to either the locality or the special scene. 
The account supplements that given by Mrs. Rathbun. When fac- 
ing the sound or ocean one had the group of trees on the left, and 
had to go down a little gulley to reach them. They were gnarled 
oak trees and standing as described. There were no dead roots 
nor partly dead roots visible. But there was near the ground one 
dead limb which resembled a very crooked root of a tree. It is 
represented in Figure VIII. The trees were situated on a little 
promontory and so a " jut out." When painted in the autumn 
the trees had colored leaves of the red and brown tones which were 
favorites of Mr. Gififord. The rug alluded to, Mr. Thompson 
found at the foot of Mr. Gifford's easel ; it contained the same colors 
as the leaves in the autumn scene which he painted of these trees. 



THOMPSON - GIFFORD CASE 




3 
bO 




3 




Figure V 




Figure VI 




Figure VII 




Figure VIII 



te* 







K'^ 



/ {^'> 



Sketch from hallucination 




Photograph from actual scene 



ROBERT SWAIN GIFFORD 209 

A few things were said that were pertinent to Mr. Thompson and 
that did not bear upon the identity of the dead. They assumed 
an influence over Mr. Thompson. For instance, Mr. Thompson 
was told that he would go out to the place where the trees were and 
paint them and that he would return when the weather was '' crisp 
and cool." He did find the trees and after painting them returned 
to New York in December, in the " cool and crisp '' weather indi- 
cated. This fulfilment of the prediction, however, may be regarded 
as the result of suggestion. 

But I have somewhat anticipated the story. I desired, however, 
to explain the incident of the trees, and to call attention to the facts 
which, in this first sitting, gave encouragement to pursue both the 
investigation and the painting. It is noticeable that these first sit- 
tings give evidence of supernormal information ; and, as they took 
place under test conditions, we do not have to raise the issue of 
the mediums' character. No hint of the communicator's name was 
given by either psychic. One or two pertinent names were given, 
but no special importance could be attached to them. 

These results sustained the hypothesis which the first experiment 
with Mrs. Rathbun suggested, and Mr. Thompson resolved to hunt 
up the scenes of his visions or hallucinations and to paint them. On 
the second of July, 1907, he, therefore, put into my hands a num- 
ber of sketches which he had made in the summer and autumn of 
1905. I wrote a note to that effect and locked them up in my files. 
Mr. Thompson first went to Nonquitt, Massachusetts, where he 
expected to find the scenes which had haunted his visions. He 
states that he had known nothing about this place, except that it 
was the summer home of Mr. Gifford. It is situated near his own 
old home in New Bedford, but is inaccessible except by boat. Mr. 
Thompson found a few of the scenes of his visions and took photo- 
graphs of them, but ascertained that Mr. Gifford's favorite haunt 
was one of the Elizabeth Islands. He then resolved to go out to 
the islands and to make an attempt to verify his apparitions. But, 
as fortune would have it, Mrs. Gifford took him into the studio of 
Mr. Gifford, which had not been greatly altered since his death two 
and a half years before. To his surprise, he saw on the easel an 
unfinished sketch, which was identical with one of the sketches 



210 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

left in my hands more than a month before. He said in his diary 
at the time that it almost took his breath away to see the identity 
of this painting with his visions and sketches. The reader may ob- 
serve this resemblance himself by comparing Figures I and II. 
There were on easels two other pictures identical with sketches 
which he had made, but which had not been left with me. 

The case does not wholly depend on the veracity of Mr. Thomp- 
son. He had left the sketch in my hands before he saw the paint- 
ing by Mr. Gifford. Mrs. Gifford testifies that the picture was 
rolled up and put away until after Mr. Gifford's death, when it 
was taken out and put on the easel. Mr. Thompson had had no 
opportunity to see it, and his impulse to paint did not arise until 
six months after Mr. Gifford's death. 

Mr. Thompson then went out to the islands and accidentally on 
the island of Nashawena came upon the exact scene of this pic- 
ture by Mr. Gifford, and painted it. He had never been on this 
island before and hence had never seen this particular view. 

In his rambles over another of the islands, whose name I am 
not permitted by the owner to give, Mr. Thompson found a large 
number of scenes that had appeared in his visions. He states, 
and the evidence is fairly conclusive, that he had never before been 
on this island. It is extremely difficult for visitors to get to the 
island without a permit, and Mr. Thompson had to obtain one to 
visit it. He painted several pictures of actual scenes which he had 
seen in his visions, and some of which he had sketched from his 
visions before he visited the islands. Among these is a peculiar 
group of trees. He stumbled upon them in his wanderings about 
this island and had started to sketch them, when he heard a voice 
similar to the one he had heard at the art gallery say : " Go and 
look on the other side of the tree." Though some sixty feet away 
he went forward and on the opposite side of the tree found 
the initials of Mr. Gifford carved in the bark of a beach tree in 
1902. 

I photographed the initials about two months later and they had 
long grown up and could not have been cut by Mr. Thompson. 

Finally in October he accidentally found the group of gnarled 
oak trees described by both psychics, and painted it. He had put 



ROBERT SWAIN GIFFORD 211 

into my hands a sketch of the trees seen in his visions, as remarked, 
on the previous second of July (Figure III). 

The next problem was for me to find these trees and photograph 
them myself. The story of their finding should be told in some 
detail, as the facts tend to make the whole incident more evidential 
than it would otherwise be. 

After some directions as to where I should find the group of 
trees, said to be near or in the edge of what is called the Black 
Woods, I went out to the island. I found the place, but no tree 
like those desired. There were plenty of gnarled oaks and storm 
blown trees of all kinds, and one group of trees which Mr. Thomp- 
son had painted, but no group representing anv specific resemblance 
to Figures III and IV, save in isolated details. I photographed a 
few trees, thinking that perhaps Mr. Thompson had put trees from 
various localities together and had made an idealized picture. The 
specific points of his sketch and painting, however, were not found 
in what I had photographed. As soon as Mr. Thompson saw the 
photographs he said that they did not represent the scene he had 
painted and that the trees he had found were all together just as 
painted. I therefore took him with me on a second trip to the 
island, and we went to the same spot. We found the group of 
trees which he said would serve as a guide to the place where the 
desired group was to be found. But there was no trace of the 
trees we were searching for. There was nothing but a sand- 
waste. We had to give up the search and return home. 

The third trip was more successful and contained some interest- 
ing episodes. On the second trip, when he failed to find the trees, 
I remarked to Mr. Thompson that he must have painted the picture 
from an hallucination; but his reply was, that this was impossible, 
because he had carved his initials on one of the trees. He con- 
jectured that he might have painted it on the north shore of the 
island, as the day in question was stormy and foggy. We made 
the third trip on order to investigate this north shore. We in- 
vestigated this shore for two or three miles and examined every tree 
and group of trees, but there was not a trace of any single tree or 
group of trees that had any specific resemblances to the desired 
scene. Nor was the shore itself sufficiently like that needed for a 



212 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

technical resemblance. There were gnarled oaks in plenty, but 
nothing that suggested the picture. We then resolved to sail around 
the island into Vineyard Sound and examine a small group of trees 
not investigated on the second trip. 

Before leaving New York, Mr. Thompson said to me that he had 
come to the conclusion that he could never find the trees by him- 
self, and went to consult a psychic, a lady whom I personally know 
well and who is not a professional in the usual sense of that term. 
She told him the following, which Mr. Thompson wrote out from 
memory for me before the steamer left the dock in New York; I 
had the record in my possession from that time on. 

" I see the trees. They are on a rounding bank. The land slopes down. 
One limb is not there. It has blown away or been struck by lightning. It 
changes the appearance of the tree." 

(Do you see any landmarks by which I can locate them?) 

" The water bends around quickly and beyond is where men have been 
at work. I see something like a round building. I can't see what it is: 
it may be used for cattle or a bridge, like a rustic bridge. In front is a 
cleared place, then trees beyond." 

(On what part of the island is it?) 

"You face the rising sun. I see houses near it. It is not exactly east, 
when you face the rising sun : it is on your left hand." 

(Are there trees near it?) 

" When you stand on the bridge and face south they are on the left 
hand." 

The reader may remark some resemblance to the statement by 
Mrs. Chenoweth, which I have quoted above. I shall not take the 
time or space to discuss details. But after we had examined the 
north shore of the island we sailed into Hadley Bay and anchored 
there, taking a row boat with the purpose of going into Vineyard 
Sound, and in trying to row under a bridge found the tide coming 
in so strong that we could not get through. Mr. Thompson threw 
his coat upon the bridge and helped us to carry the boat around and 
into the water. He went back for his coat, but instead of getting 
it took his stand on the bridge, facing east, and, ignoring three 
separate calls to get his coat and come on, he seemed to go into a 
sort of trance. Soon he ran down the bridge, leaving his coat there 
for some one else to get, and ran with all his might around the shore 
to a small promontory, shouting back that he had found the trees. 



ROBERT SWAIN GIFFORD 213 

He threw into the air the old grocery box which he had said before 
leaving New York that we would or ought to find on the spot where 
the trees were. Mr. Thompson's initials were on one of the trees. 

We then photographed the trees and the shore. They are repre- 
sented in Figures V and VI. One of the important limbs present- 
ing a specific characteristic for identification had been blown down 
by the wind, but was found and tied in its place for the photograph. 
Another, the S-shaped limb in the tree at the right, had also been 
broken off by sheep. It too was found. The two limbs are rep- 
resented in Figures VII and VIII. The limb on the tree at the 
left, which turns on itself, was not a part of the real scene ; but, as 
Mr. Thompson had always said that he had himself inserted this 
from another tree, no importance attaches to this discrepancy. But 
the branched limb on the ground was there, and the cut will show 
the two large rocks lying in position. The decayed spot in one 
tree, the one at the left, was there. There was no storm at the 
time of our visit and hence no such appearance as the picture rep- 
resents. But the group of trees were a little to the left when one 
faces the east, and when facing the south there was a wood on the 
left. The bridge was not exactly a rustic bridge, but had some 
resemblances to such. On the left of the bridge was a " slope 
down," which had to be crossed in reaching the promontory where 
the trees were. The houses were west of this spot and not visible. 

The reader will observe from the cuts that there is more distinct 
resemblance between the sketch which had been placed in my hands 
in July, 1907, and the painting represented by Figure IV than be- 
tween either the sketch or the painting and the photographs of the 
real scene. But the specific characteristics which determine iden- 
tity are all there, and unmistakably indicate the right trees, though 
the painting, as Is usual. Idealizes the scene. 

The two most Important pictures thus seemed to bear the In- 
vestigation, and the fundamental question of Mr. Thompson's 
veracity, which was the first thing to be determined, was settled. 
Of course there are other important evidences of the supernormal, 
not connected with his veracity, namely, the mediumlstic phenom- 
ena in my own experiments. As many of the circumstances de- 
scribed protect the genuineness of the phenomena affecting the two 



214 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

pictures, we may feel less difficulty in accepting other instances 
where similar identity exists between sketches made from his visions 
and the actual scenes afterwards found. There were several of 
these. There was one of a forest, rather dense, which Mr. Thomp- 
son sketched from an hallucination and then found on another 
easel, though he did not recognize it at the time, having forgotten 
his sketch. There were also two sketches of a seashore and a man 
with an ox team, and on still another easel in Mr. Gifford's studio 
was a painting by Mr. Gifford representing the same scene. 

Mr. Thompson had many other interesting experiences which 
he recorded in his diary at the time. When he was on the island 
searching for the scenes which had haunted his visions, he often 
heard music like that of a guitar or violin and hunted about to see 
if it was produced by any one. He found no evidence of any 
human cause. In fact, there seems to be but one house on the is- 
land, except the three or four at the eastern end of it. The island 
has no population except the two or three families of care-takers. 
Besides, this music was heard at different times and places on the 
island, and once Mr. Thompson ran up a hill to see if he could find 
some one whom he fancied he heard singing, but found no one. 
Usually the music he heard was instrumental. A friend of Mr. 
Gifford states that Mr. Gifford was passionately fond of music, 
especially of the violin. Whether there is anything more than a co- 
incidence in this circumstance must be determined by each one for 
himself. 

These incidents made it necessary to try further experiments 
with psychics to see if I could obtain more specific evidence of the 
influence of Mr. Gifford. I therefore held a number of sittings 
with Mrs. Rathbun and with Mrs. Chenoweth, some of them be- 
fore the public knew anything about my work on the case. I shall 
briefly summarize the results, indicating those obtained before the 
psychics had any means of suspecting that I was experimenting 
with Mr. Thompson and before they knew anything of the 
case. 

The first sitting was on April 3 with Mrs. Rathbun, and was held 
before I had made the search for the trees mentioned above. She 
did not recognize Mr. Thompson, whose first sitting had occurred 



ROBERT SWAIN GIFFORD 215 

more than a year before. At this sitting Mrs. Rathbun soon made 
the following very relevant statement: 

" You have been questioned regarding your honesty, so far as 
intuitions, impressions or — some might call them hallucinations, 
for you have a very peculiar pov^^er." 

Then came an allusion to a lady v^ho vras said to be influencing 
him from the other side of life, practically implying what was in- 
dicated at the first sitting more than a year before. Then a ref- 
erence was made to the confused state of Mr. Thompson's 
" material " conditions — a statement that was exact, if it can be 
said to describe the effect of these impulses on his financial situa- 
tion. Then a reference was made to '' uniform," which might pos- 
sibly be interpreted as pointing to the tarpaulin, and then he was 
told that he had twice nearly passed out of the body. This was 
exactly true, if his own feelings are to be taken as the guide. When 
he had finished the painting of the group of trees above described, 
and called the " Battle of the Elements," he had felt so ecstatic 
that he could describe his sensations only as dying. This impres- 
sion was recorded in his diary. At another time he was nearly 
dashed to pieces w^hile painting the sea in a tarpaulin, and had to 
lash himself to a rock to keep his position. These facts were 
known only to Mr. Thompson. The medium mentioned the " hurt 
or blow " connected with the exposure. 

A striking allusion was made to an operation upon a man who 
was said to be communicating; Mr. Thompson while on the island, 
had witnessed the funeral of a man who had died from an opera- 
tion, and the scene had produced a profound emotional effect on 
Mr. Thompson. There was some confusion by the medium of this 
incident with the personality of the artist supposed to be influencing 
his work. Some striking statements were made about a ring which 
Mr. Thompson was wearing, namely, that he had made it himself 
and that the stones in it had been changed, and a number of other 
even more important incidents, which I need not mention except 
to indicate their irrelevance and yet evidential character for the 
supernormal. 

One little incident of great relevance was mentioned. It was, 
that there was a little woman who worried a great deal for fear 



2i6 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

that he would not be practical, and that she wanted to get him into 
his every-day line of work. Every word of this was true with 
reference to his wife, and when under this obsession Mr. Thompson 
was not very practical as the world goes. Then the medium went 
on to describe exactly the attitude of mind which his relatives had 
toward his experiences, saying that they thought him going insane 
and that they '' would rather you were more practical than inter- 
ested in the spiritual," adding that " they cannot stop you, because 
it is not hallucination or insanity." She added that his work was 
influenced by spirits about him, though she did not at this time know 
anything about the case. 

A direct allusion was made " to peculiar scenes and visions " and 
*' lots of them " that he had around him, with the remark that some 
" extraordinary happenings had happened to him within the last 
ten months." Then came a spontaneous reference to the ocean 
and a shipwreck and again to his " uniform " and a reference to 
what must be taken as some one guiding him in his work from the 
" other side." The pertinence of this reference is apparent, 
whether it is evidential or not. One remark describes an exact 
scene in his life, when he was painting on the shore of the sound. 
The detailed record will be clearer and more interesting than these 
excerpts, and also will contain a number of incidents which, though 
not bearing on the issue, do show indications of supernormal in- 
formation about incidents in Mr. Thompson's life. 

At the second sitting there was much relevant matter concernmg 
Mr. Thompson's life, and a reference to a box, said not to be a 
satchel, but describing Mr. Thompson's means of carrying about 
his materials. In the first of the two sittings, it was clearly indi- 
cated that he was an artist, and this idea is made still clearer in 
this second experiment. The most important allusion, however, 
was to a Latin word which the medium said had come to him. 
Mrs. Chenoweth at a later sitting alluded to the same word. Mr. 
Thompson had had a communication from an alleged spirit, giving 
the Latin words '" alter ego/' as the influence affecting him, and 
purporting to come from a lady. There was then an allusion to 
a woman and a child, representing something that he had seen in 
his visions and that he would paint. The fact was that, as he fin- 



ROBERT SWAIN GIFFORD 217 

ished the painting of the group of trees in the *' Battle of the 
Elements," he saw the vision of a woman and a child interfused 
with the scene, and had been haunted ever since by the desire to 
paint this representation of a madonna and child. The statement 
that he drew much under trees was true and pertinent. There was, 
however, no definite identification of Mr. Gifford. The two sittings 
discovered only incidents associated with the Hfe of Mr. Thompson, 
with a few vague indications of the source from which his apparent 
inspiration came. 

The next two sittings were with Mrs. Chenoweth on the dates of 
April 10 and 11. Mrs. Chenoweth goes into a light trance for her 
oral work. Mrs. Rathbun was normal in her sittings. There was 
a great deal of subliminal '' chaff," if I may so describe the non- 
evidential matter, but interfused with it were incidents that clearly 
represent supernormal information. Mr. Gifford was fairly well 
described in several characteristics physical and mental, with some 
errors, and the intimation was made that he was influencing Mr. 
Thompson. Mr. Thompson's business was indicated in fairly clear 
terms. The reference to a woman in the '' spirit world " and 
the entire account of her relation to Mr. Thompson fitted what had 
been told through Mrs. Rathbun in her first and later sittings and 
also what was said the year before through Mrs. Chenoweth, 
though she did not know that I had brought the same sitter. We 
may- assume that her subconscious recognized the man. Mr. 
Thompson's middle name was given and an allusion, like that of 
Mrs. Rathbun, was made to his unsettled condition of mind and 
body, a very pertinent statement because of the embarrassed state 
of his finances at the time. This was followed by a description of 
Mr. Gifford's work at painting, evidently to identify him, but the 
medium wholly misinterpreted it to refer to writing. The incident 
as understood by her was wholly false. But immediately there- 
after she described a pocket-book, brown, old and shiny, long as a 
bill-book, with papers in it. Later in the deeper trance and by au- 
tomatic writing the same psychic referred to it again with more 
details. Mr. Gifford had no such pocket-book, but he did have a 
sketch-book and in fact many of them, which might be so described. 
In the later sitting it was said that this pocket-book had a strap 



2i8 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

about it and contained a burial permit. Mr. Gifford used rubber 
bands about his sketch-book, but had no burial permit in it. He did 
carry in his sketch-book a permit to visit the island of Nashawena. 

Then came the following statement : '' Did you ever have a feel- 
ing as if you were away from the body, above everything, some- 
times ? " Mr. Thompson replied in the affirmative, and further 
statements refer to the outside influences producing this effect on 
Mr. Thompson. 

Then came the statement : " Another thing. You have got a 
sort of hearing. It is not definitely unfolded yet, but there are 
times when you can get strains of music, just as though it floats 
about you. People don't seem to understand you, do they, around 
you?'^ There then followed a long and accurate description of 
Mr. Thompson's habits at the time, none of it specifically evidential, 
except the allusion to " dreams that he has sometimes " and to his 
" throwing himself down at night and looking and trying to see 
the spirits and as though he felt such dreams.'* The reader will 
recognize the relevance of the allusion to music and the " dreams,'' 
which apparently refer to his visions ; he did at times exactly what 
is here said, throw himself down and give way to his visions. 

The next sitting contains a large amount of pertinent matter, too 
vague to summarize, and open to the interpretation of inference 
from admissions by Mr. Thompson. But there were a few inci- 
dents specific enough to attract attention. The first was a state- 
ment that he, the sitter, had a lot of unfinished canvases, and a ref- 
erence to a yellow cliff and the blue sea, this being a very definite 
reference to a picture which Mr. Thompson had painted at Cutty- 
hunk and which he had long before sketched from a vision. Mr. 
Thompson had never seen this bluff. Following this was an ap- 
parent allusion to Mr. Thompson's occupation as a goldsmith, then 
to influences from older and deceased artists for which there was 
no specific evidence. 

The next specific incident was a reference to a vision of a woman ; 
no mention of a child is made in connection with it, but he is told 
that he is to paint this. The reader will recognize the allusion to 
the vision Mr. Thompson had when he had finished painting the 
trees, and the similar reference of Mrs. Rathbun. Mr. Thompson 



ROBERT SWAIN GIFFORD 219 

was told that in connection with this inspiration he would slip 
away by himself and cry, and that now, when off alone tears would 
often come, tears of joy at his work. This statement was true. 

But the evidence of personal identity in these sittings with both 
Mrs. Rathbun and Mrs. Chenoweth is entirely unsatisfactory. 
There is evidence of supernormal information; and a critical analy- 
sis of the whole mass of statements, in spite of its " chaffy " char- 
acter, will reveal interesting pertinence throughout. But my 
dissatisfaction was so great that I resolved on a different type of 
experiments. Those just summarized represented work previous 
to any possible knowledge on the part of the psychics of what I 
was doing and of Mr. Thompson's experience. The public, by 
this time, as a result of my inquiries on the Elizabeth Islands, had 
learned something of the case; very little that was relevant, how- 
ever, got into the papers, and nothing that is attributable to that 
source of information came out in the records. However this may 
be, it was necessary to experiment further to satisfy the require- 
ment for better evidence of personal identity in the alleged com- 
municator, and the deeper trance afforded me a better opportunity 
for testing the case. The experiments were conducted without ad- 
mitting Mr. Thompson to the room until after Mrs. Chenoweth had 
gone into her trance. The results were much better than before. I 
summarize them briefly. 

It took some time to obtain an adjustment at the first sitting. 
The communicator who first appeared through the automatic writ- 
ing purported to be Professor Sidgwick. Not a hint was given of 
any one related to Mr. Thompson until he moved in his chair ; then, 
as if awakened by this, the medium at once referred to some one 
near him and began at once to tell incidents related to Mr. GifTord. 
Allusion was made to a man with a whip in his hand and familiar 
with horses. This was not especially significant, but immediately 
following it was a reference to a gang-plank, a steamer, and a trip, 
not on the ocean, and then to the " wallet " smooth and shiny with 
the burial permit in it, apparently an allusion to his sketch-book, as 
explained above. The account of his room and desk with their 
papers was accurate enough, considering that he taught as well as 
painted, but it had no value as evidence, while the immediate state- 



220 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

ment that he had taken a little journey just before he passed away 
was true and quite pertinent, as he had taken a little trip with Mrs. 
Gilford just before his fatal illness. When the automatic writing 
came, the first allusion was to a woman who might have been re- 
garded as Mr. Thompson's grandmother, though she was not evi- 
dentially indicated. Then the control took up the personality whom 
we were seeking and referred again to the journey before he passed 
out, and added that there were two services in connection with the 
funeral, which was true of Mr. Gifford. There arose a clear idea 
that I was seeking incidents to identify this personality. There 
followed an earnest effort to supply these, though the success for 
some time was not marked. An allusion was made to certain 
*' black figures, like stellar geography " scattered through a book 
that was mentioned, which would fit some of Mr. Gifford's illus- 
trating, though the incident cannot be regarded as evidential. 
Finally the communication became so confused and equivocal that 
I indicated that the whole thing was perfectly blind; in order to 
identify the man more clearly an allusion was made by the control 
to '' color, more color, and more again." I hinted that they were 
now on the right line, and there came an allusion to the '' paper 
hand-book again," with a statement, very true of Mr. Gifford, that 
the '' blue and the sky were always fascinating to him." 

At this point there was an apparent attempt on the part of the 
communicator directly to control the writing himself, but he was 
unable to effect his object, though he made the remarkably inter- 
esting statement that '' it was so much of an effort to keep his 
memory and all the work at the same time." The sitting then came 
to an end. 

As Mrs. Chenoweth came out of the trance she said some things 
relevant to the identity of Mr. Thompson. She described a large 
horse and said it was one that he used to ride " back to," w^th some 
reference to peculiarities in Mr. Thompson that took him out of 
the athletic class, though he has an athletic body. All this was true 
about his riding a horse when a boy, and it was just such a 
horse as was described. She then stated that he was an artist and 
made a reference to the influence of colors on him, specifying his 
love of yellow, which was true. 



ROBERT SWAIN GIFFORD 221 

On the next day there elapsed considerable time before any 
relevant facts appeared. Apparently the controls tried subliminal 
methods instead of automatic writing, hoping that identity might 
be better established by that means than by writing. A great 
many things were said that were true, but not evidential. The first 
incident that promised to be valuable was the following : 

" I think he smokes. It is something that he holds in his mouth. He 
does n't seem to be always smoking, but it seems that he holds something in 
his mouth quite a lot; really, Hke a — like — I think it is like a cigarette. 
I think he gets nervous and rolls them up and then holds them there and then 
sits down and does a little and does that again, just that little nervous 
anxious way." 

Now, as fortune would have it, inquiry showed that Mr. Gifford 
did not smoke, and, even if he had smoked, the incident would have 
been without evidential importance. But I learned that Mr. Gifford 
was in the habit of holding a stick in his mouth when he was at 
work, rolling it about and chewing it as some people use cigarettes 
or cigars. The description of the medium does not clearly indicate 
assurance as to what it is, and the expressions '' holds in his mouth " 
and " does n't seem to be always smoking " suggest the interpreta- 
tion of the passage in conformity with the facts as I ascertained 
them. 

Then came a reference to a " soft cap, not a skull cap " which 
might have meant a Scotch cap which he used to wear. The men- 
tion of his desire to paint a pearl was not verifiable. But, on being 
asked to describe the picture that was on his easel, the communi- 
cator, or the subliminal of the medium, made the following state- 
ment: 

" Yes, indeed, I see it. It is quite a good-sized one. Yes, indeed, rhere 
is a picture there and it is a picture of a scene. It is not a person. It is 
a scene and I can see away off in it. It is n't all done, you know. It is 
partly done, but mostly done so that you can see pretty nearly what it is. 
Oh, but it is beautiful, you know. But there are some trees in it and 
there is some foreground that is lighter and then the background seems 
dark, but some trees and I think I catch some glimpses of light in through. 
It doesn't seem like a scene around here. It seems as though there is 
some sky in it and that everything is very brilliant. Everything he did 
is brilliant, brilliant colorings. He likes those thirigs, you know." 



222 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

The reader may determine for himself the measure of accuracy in 
this account by comparing it with the cut represented in Figure II. 
This represents the picture that was on the easel and that cor- 
responds to the sketch which Mr. Thompson made from a vision 
without ever having seen the original. This original was an un- 
finished sketch of Mr. Gifford's. The inaccuracy in the account is 
the reference to the background as dark. But this is apparently 
corrected by the allusion to light being visible through it. It is 
possible that the very dark field occupied by the trees might be 
taken by obscure perception for the background. In any case the 
other characteristics mentioned do apply to this picture. 

The next incident, perhaps as suggestive as that just marked, 
was the statement : " There is another little thing that stands up, or 
else it is pinned up, but it is something like a small thing. It is 
thinner and smaller than the picture. It is not a study of the pic- 
ture. It is something different and seems to be up on one of the 
posts." 

Now Mr. Gifford had a smaller sketch of this same scene, from 
which he had painted the larger one represented in Figure II, and 
it too was on the easel, placed very much as indicated. 

After a number of pertinent, though non-evidential, allusions, I 
was told that he had illustrated poetry and had done work in 
*' black and white," both of which I was able to verify. The 
allusion to '' atmosphere " as characteristic of him was true and sug- 
gestive. The reference to his having many unfinished canvases 
was true and more or less evidential. 

After some confused allusions to travel, came an evident at- 
tempt to describe his old home and its surroundings. That it was 
a " goodcolored " house and a landmark was true, and also that 
there was a '' piece at the end " ; there was an " L " on the house. 
That it was inland was true. That he could look over water from 
it was true and that there was " a lake near where he was " was 
almost correct, as Hadley Bay, shut up by the surrounding land, 
looks like a lake. Still more pertinent was the statement that it 
'' had beautiful views around it, and then hills rising soft like 
billows." 

Another incident is very interesting. I quote it in full. 



ROBERT SWAIN GIFFORD 223 

" I want to know if you know anything about a little loft. It seems as 
though — I have got two places that this spirit worked in ; one is off, you 
know." 

(Yes.) 

" In the country. One is in the city." n^ 

(Yes.) 

" You know. Well, do you know anything about what I would call a 
little loft? It seems almost like going up in a barn or a shed, and there 
is a smell of hay and a smell of things around, but some things are kept 
up there — and working there sometimes." 

(All right. I think I shall find out about that.) 

" It is a place. It is not a house, you know. It is like a place that you 
go and can open doors wide and look out, upstairs, you know, and it smells 
of hay." 

Mr. Gifford had two places for work, one in the country and 
one in the city. Early in his artistic career he had a studio in a 
barn and he and Mrs. Gifford used to work there, as indicated. All 
the incidents were true as stated, even to the wide doors. 

Then the means of communication changed to automatic writ- 
ing. The communicator was asked, after he had intimated that he 
was influencing the sitter, whether he knew what particular things 
he had impressed upon the man. The reply was : 

" Of course he knows or rather he knew there was a scene which he 
was trying to project which he has never yet given. It is a misty day 
on the old road or a misty day on the marshes. I do not know which. 
It has come over our friend a number of times that a misty day, a soft 
gray day would be a good subject." 

Every word of this is true. Mr. Gififord had had a great liking 
for misty days and atmosphere, as perhaps many artists have ; but 
Mr. Thompson states that he has often been haunted by appari- 
tions of misty scenes and days to be painted. This remark was 
followed by the statement of the communicator or the medium that 
Mr, Thompson had trouble in selecting his paints, and that he had 
especial difficulty with his grays, while the yellows turned up 
more easily. All this was perfectly true. 

The next sitting was with Mrs. Rathbun. The first allusion was 
to a picture, which was said to be at my house; I had only a short 
time before taken one of Mr. Thompson's pictures to hold it against 
a cheap sale. It was the " Battle of the Elements." The last inci- 



224 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

dent, indicating the supernormal though not evidence of communi- 
cation with the dead, was Mrs. Rathbun's allusion to something in 
Mr. Thompson's pocket, which she said had been cut in Paris. Mr. 
Thompson had in his pocket some crystals from Paris; it is not 
possible that Mrs. Rathbun knew anything about them. 

Mrs. Chenoweth was the subject of the next sittings. The first 
evidential circumstance was an account of what was in his house. 
The medium indicated that he had a lot of old-fashioned furniture 
in it; that he had some straight-backed rush-bottom chairs, and 
that there was an old-fashioned bureau " with legs that curve out." 
Mr. Gifford was fond of old-fashioned furniture, and had in his 
house such a bureau, with bird-claw legs, and some rush-bottomed 
chairs. 

The next incident is as interesting for its mistake as for its apt- 
ness. The medium said that the artist had something '' almost 
like a basket near a shelf with a lot of brushes in it," and that he 
*' kept an awful lot of old brushes," and that when he came to 
paint " rocks and things that were rough " he resorted to these 
old brushes, and that he seldom threw a brush away. Mr. Gifford 
did keep his old brushes and use them in this way. They were not 
kept in a basket, but in a ginger jar. 

When asked whether he had communicated elsewhere he admitted 
that he had, and indicated the number of times with fair correctness. 
Then a reference was made to an intended picture for Mr. Thomp- 
son, a symbolic painting about the past and the future, which Air. 
Thompson took to represent his vision, interpreted to mean im- 
mortality. After some apparent effort to recall, the communicator 
mentioned a man by the name of Cox, saying that he was an illus- 
trator. Mr. Gifford had a friend by this name, but he was an archi- 
tect, not an illustrator. Mention was made of his having painted 
a fish, an incident that Mrs. Gifford says was true; in response to 
the question whether he liked sublime scenery, the reply was, that 
he liked wild things better, which was true. In a few minutes he 
or the medium spontaneously indicated that he had painted Dutch 
scenes, windmills and the like. This was true. The paintings 
that had made his reputation were of the Dartmouth salt works, 
with windmills in them, and resembling many of the Dutch paint- 



ROBERT SWAIN GIFFORD 225 

ings. He was said by the psychic to have admired Dutch paint- 
ing, a statement which seems to have been true. 

Then came a remarkable passage which is too long to quote but 
which is full of evidential matter. Reference was made to 
" scraggly and gnarled oaks " and *' an* overhanging bank " with a 
boat near and " the ocean in front." Mr. Gifford had actually 
painted such a scene near his cottage. I have a cut of it. It was 
not the ocean in front, but Buzzard's Bay. Immediately after this 
came a reference to the *' river in back," and suddenly an allusion 
to the lighthouse there, saying that its light was not one " of the 
revolving kind," but steady, and that the lighthouse was " straight 
and white," and was called the " Farmer's Light." It was Dump- 
ling light that' was near his cottage. It was white and the light 
was not a revolving one, but was steady as affirmed. 

The account of his painting in storms would have been correct if 
it had been asserted of an occasional trial, but it applies more fit- 
tingly to much that Mr. Thompson had done. After an unsuccess- 
ful attempt to describe his house in the city, the communicator de- 
scribed a favorite picture. Mrs. Gifford did not recognize the 
special picture described, but said that several favorites were, in 
character, much like the one described. 

The communicator said that he had lost a child and that he had 
once or twice tried to paint the boy's face in some picture. I 
ascertained that this was true. The name of the child was in- 
correctly given. 

At this point the subliminal communications ceased, and the com- 
municator attempted to control directly, w^ith rather remarkable 
results. Besides referring correctly to the *' blue and disheartened " 
days through which Mr. Thompson had passed, and to the effort 
which he, the communicator, had made to influence him, he asked 
the sitter, Mr. Thompson, the following very remarkable question : 

" I have been to him as in dreams at times.'' 

(Yes, I understand.) 

" And will do so again." 

(Thank you.) 

" Ask him if he remembers an incident when, standing on a bridge and 
looking down, he saw pictures in the water like reflections and a great de- 
sire came over him to paint? " 



226 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

(Yes, he says he remembers that well.) 

" I was there and followed him for some time. Sometimes in the old 
days he was so disheartened and blue, as if had not found the right path, 
but now he is far happier and life seems more complete." 

The reader will appreciate this passage when he knows that, early 
in his visit to the Elizabeth Islands, as Mr. Thompson stood on the 
very bridge from which we discovered the group of oak trees 
painted in the " Battle of the Elements," he was looking at the 
reflections of the rocks, covered with moss and sea-weed, when 
they appeared as landscapes to his vision, and there came over him 
an ecstatic desire to paint. He was a very much disheartened man 
before and after this experience, but, with the resolution formed 
on that occasion, he went about the island discovering and paint- 
ing the various scenes that had haunted his visions. 

At the next sitting Mr. Gifford, if I may assume that he was 
really communicating, tried direct communications again; and, 
among a number of true and pertinent incidents not especially im- 
portant, he asked me, in Mr. Thompson's absence, how I liked the 
comparison of the picture and the real scene. The interest here lies 
in the fact that I had a few days previously been on the second 
trip to search for the trees that we finally found in July. Mrs. 
Chenoweth knew nothing about this trip, though she had known 
after the middle of May that I had been investigating the case 
on the coast of New England. When I asked the communicator 
what scene and what picture, as we had not yet found the object 
of our quest, he replied, the small one, and described it as " the 
marsh and tree and you know it was the misty one," and asked 
me, " How do you explain the bit of red in a sunset sky? It was 
good, but the red was put in as an afterthought." We had not 
noticed any such scene and did not know of any such picture. But 
Mrs. Gifford told me that he had once painted such a picture and 
that he had afterwards put in the red of the sunset. The com- 
municator then went on to remark that he had in mind a picture of 
death represented by a beckoning angel with one hand pointing to 
a path leading up a mountain, and that Mr. Thompson had seen it 
as in a dream. The main features of this are true. 

As I had never obtained Mr. Gifford's name in the communica- 



ROBERT SWAIN GIFFORD 227 

tions, and as I desired to strengthen the evidence by experiments 
through Mrs. Smead, whose motives could not possibly be sus- 
pected, I brought her from the Southern state where she lived, 
some thirteen miles from a railway and almost inaccessible to in- 
formation about the case. 

The first few experiments did not show any evidence of the com- 
municator's identity. At the first sitting it was distinctly intimated 
that Mr. Thompson had to do with art, as a gilt-framed painting 
in oil, representing a landscape, was referred to as standing near 
his door. This was correct. At the next sitting the communicator 
was identified as an artist and I was told that *' he likes that pic- 
ture which you have," apparently referring to one of two that I 
had. I had taken the " Battle of the Elements," and had been 
given another picture of merit, in fact one of the best that Mr. 
Thompson had painted. Mrs. Smead knew nothing about them, as 
one of them had been put away out of sight, and the other was 
hanging unexplained in my parlor. Some very good advice was 
given Mr. Thompson about his pictures, and a reference was made 
to teaching, relevant to the personality of Mr. Gifford. The next 
experiment was similar; in the last one the most interesting inci- 
dents were given to establish the identity of the communicator. 
I was usually sent out of the room by the control, in order to leave 
Mr. Thompson alone with the communicator, but before leaving 
on this day, I asked Dr. Hodgson, who w^as acting as amanuensis, 
that is as control, to try to give the communicator's name. At 
once he write out '' R. G. yes." I conjecture that " yes " was a 
mistake for " S," the probable intention being to give *' R. G. S." 
— Robert Swain Gifford was his name. Soon after, '* R. G. S." 
was given and the '' S " repeated. 

After I had left the room, the communicator referred to a pic- 
ture " on the canvas with the rock on the coast " and added '' yes, 
the ocean " and then drew a picture representing a pile of rocks 
mounted by a cross, and wrote out '' and my name is on it." Later 
in the sitting an allusion was made to it again and the cross was 
drawn again and this time apparently not on a pile of rocks but on 
a ground of sand washed by the waves. 

While on the shore last summer, Mr. Thompson saw some 



228 CONTACT WrrH THE OTHER WORLD 

wreckage ahead of him, and on approaching it saw on it a cross, 
caused by a rib of a boat crossed by a piece of timber. As he went 
nearer he saw the initials of Mr. Gifford on it, but as he went still 
nearer, the initials disappeared. He wrote out an account of this 
experience at the time and sent it in a letter to Mrs. Thompson. 
She gave the letter to me on November lo, and I had it in my files 
at the time of this sitting, December 9. 

The communicator then indicated that the scene was in " our 
West Indies," a fair indication of the locality. Soon a statement 
was made by the communicator that he had sketched at a place which 
he had tried to indicate, apparently getting the word " Island.'* 
He soon said that " swimming was a sport of which I was very 
fond there on the island shore." I have not been able to verify 
the statement about the swimming, but a correct reference to a 
cottage and his mother, as his early home was there, makes it 
probable that the statement about swimming, though not evidential, 
is correct. His allusion to the house as their " spot " was also 
true, and the term apparently a characteristic one. 

In connection with the reference to the house, he mentioned 
that he used to climb and sketch the trees there. After stating 
that he had sketched them, he made an excellent evidential remark. 
He said " the wind used to blow them dreadfully, yes, away over. 
Can you remember the storms we used to have there ? " That 
coast is a very stormy one, and the trees in that locality are re- 
markably storm-blown. I have seen some whose tops had been 
made, by the winds, to grow at right angles to the trunk. Im- 
mediately he was asked to give the name of the island where he had 
done his work. Apparently he got the capital letter " E " and more 
probably the word Island, the letter '' I " being found clearly 
written several times. The suggestion of Elizabeth Islands is 
thus clear. This was followed by his initials " R. S. G." in their 
correct order. After repeating the reference to the storms and 
waves circular lines were drawn to represent the rolling of the 
waves on the shore, and a reference, probably correct, was made 
to skipping rocks on the water when a boy; then in reply to the 
second request to give the name of the island he got the word 



ROBERT SWAIN GIFFORD 229 

" Marchan/' which will suggest to any reader what island was 
meant. This ended the sittings. 

It is impossible within the compass of this chapter to discuss 
these incidents and their import. Suffice it to say that they have 
the same general character as those which come from Mrs. Piper, 
Mrs. Verrall and others, and, assuming that they are free from 
suspicion, must have the same interpretation. The circumstances 
make some of the facts less evidential than others. But it will not 
be necessary to defend or apologize for the weaker incidents. We 
may discard the sittings with Mrs. Rathbun and Mrs. Chenoweth 
after the middle of May, when we may suppose them to have had 
the opportunity to make inquiries. The reader may feel assured 
that they did not do so, but the opportunity may be conceded, on 
account of their knowledge that I was investigating the case. Dis- 
counting all sittings after the middle of May, we nevertheless have 
a number that give evidence of supernormal information under 
test conditions. Besides, whatever we may assume as possible 
regarding the others, the careful student will examine the facts 
and may come to the conclusion that they afford internal evidence 
of good faith; many of them could not easily have been obtained 
by any sort of inquiry without betraying the purpose. 

Whatever suspicion may be entertained regarding a part of the 
record connected with Mrs. Rathbun and Mrs. Chenoweth, cannot 
be applied to that of Mrs. Smead, where the evidence, though often 
confused, is unmistakable, and shows that ordinary explanations 
cannot be applied to her sittings. 

On any theory we ought to recognize that the identity of Mr. 
Gifford is clear. There are perhaps no single incidents that would 
force one to accept this view, but their collective force is over- 
whelming and constitutes a mass of relevant hints inapplicable to 
any one else. One of the most interesting and significant circum- 
stances, which could not be indicated in a summary of the facts, is 
the constant assumption and frequent assertion that the communi- 
cator has been and still is influencing Mr. Thompson, and influenc- 
ing him to paint. Besides this, the mediumistic phenomena cor- 
roborate the spontaneous experiences of Mr. Thompson and point 



230 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

in the same direction. Superficially, at least, all the facts point 
to the spiritistic hypothesis, whatever perplexities exist in regard to 
the modus operandi of the agencies effecting the results. 

A striking character of the phenomena is, that the hallucinations 
cannot be rationally accounted for by telepathy between the living. 
We might suppose telepathy and telepathic phantasms from the 
dead, but to do this is to concede that the facts either tend to prove 
the spiritistic hypothesis or are explicable by it, while the medium- 
istic incidents support it independently and confirm the character 
and significance of the visions. 

The critical inquirer should go to the detailed report for a 
correct understanding of the facts and of their evidential nature. 
They occur in the midst of much chaff and confusion, and a sum- 
mary like this necessarily makes the case appear stronger than it 
might appear to one who had to wade through the entire records. 
On the other hand, he who takes this trouble will discover, by 
careful investigation, that there is a connected relevance in much 
of the non-evidential matter, which may appear to strengthen the 
case instead of weakening it. 

I have not mentioned the cross-references in the records. There 
are several, representing the same or similar messages through dif- 
ferent psychics. The most notable are the references apparently 
to the painting and scene representing the " Battle of the Elements " 
and the picture on the easel. But I shall not dwell upon these. The 
reader may discover them for himself in the detailed records. They 
very much strengthen the evidence, and the manner of their de- 
livery more or less protects them from the ordinary suspicions. 
The instances mentioned occurred under test conditions and there is 
no reason to minimize their importance. 

One thing it is important to remark: Not all the facts in the 
record bear upon the personal identity of the communicator. The 
important thing was to ascertain, if possible by mediumistic experi- 
ments, whether the superficial interpretation of Mr. Thompson's 
experience would be borne out in mediumistic results; this inter- 
pretation seems to have been confirmed in the evidence both of 
the identity of the communicator and of a connection between the 
visions of Mr. Thompson and that communicating personality. 



CHAPTER XV 
PROFESSOR JAMES 

PROFESSOR JAMES died on August 26, 1910. On the 
next day, August 27, Mrs. Smead, living in the moun- 
tains in one of the Southern states, thirteen miles from a rail- 
way, before any newspaper or other news of James's death could 
reach the place, had an apparition of a man in a long black gown. 
She did not recognize him, as she had never seen a picture of 
Professor James. On the following Tuesday, August 30, she ac- 
cidentally learned that Professor James was dead. A Baltimore 
paper giving an account of the fact had reached the mountain vil- 
lage, and Mrs. Smead's son casually remarked to his mother that 
Professor James was dead. Mr. Smead burned the paper before 
Mrs. Smead had had an opportunity to read it. Some time later 
she was shown a picture of Professor James and recognized it as 
identical with the apparition. 

On August 31 Mr. Smead held a sitting, but nothing whatever 
occurred to suggest that Professor James was present. Another 
sitting was held on September i, and almost immediately an at- 
tempt was made to give the Greek letter Omega, which succeeded 
at the second attempt. The meaning of this was not apparent 
either then or later until I got the same letter through Mrs. Chenow- 
eth as the sign of Professor James. It might have signified, as 
this letter does in literature, the last person to have come to that 
side, but no indication of this meaning was given. 

There was some further stumbling about with Greek letters, and 
reference to a college sign, but nothing evidential. On September 
2 an allusion was made to an elm said to be near Professor James's 
" earth home." Inquiry proved that this was true of his Cam- 
bridge home, a fact which the Smeads did not know and could not 
have known. In the meantime I had promptly made arrange- 
ments to have some sittings. The first was on September 12. 

231 



232 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

There was no attempt at first to present Professor James. My 
wife purported to communicate and referred apparently to a de- 
ceased brother. She was followed by my father for a few mo- 
ments and then came a change of control and Dr. Hodgson came 
to the helm, reporting the presence of Professor James and Mr. 
Myers. A statement was made that they had tried to appear " at 
the lady over there," apparently referring to Mrs. Verrall, a wavy 
line being drawn to signify the ocean, as is usual with Mrs. Smead. 
Many months later I learned from England that on this very date, 
some hours before my sitting, Mrs. Verrall had had a dream in 
which she thought Professor James was trying to communicate, and 
that she had made a record of the dream. 

The next day there were several pertinent allusions which did 
not reach the rank of good evidence, but were interesting, when 
we consider that Mrs. Smead knew absolutely nothing of Professor 
James and his habits of thought. One allusion was to his wanting 
to believe, and to his believing " only partially." Reference to the 
religious aspect is also significant. A pertinent reference was made 
to the difi^erence between himself and Mr. Myers, in the statement 
that the latter had written poetry and that he himself had not. This 
was true, and the Smeads knew nothing of the facts. This was 
followed by a very natural remark about letting the Piper records 
go out of *' our possession," pointing probably to the policy of al- 
lowing sitters to have records which the office did not keep. The 
Smeads knew nothing that could make this subconscious knowledge. 
Other matter is such as new experience might suggest, but is not 
evidential, though an allusion or two to the cause of confusion 
shows that his mind was turning to one of the perplexities which 
had troubled him during life. 

On the next day the first references that would suggest an at- 
tempt at evidence were to psychometry, in which it is not known 
that Professor James had ever been interested. Some observa- 
tions on his own obstinate doubts and the influence of the Imperator 
regime in the Piper case were very characteristic and represented 
knowledge that Mrs. Smead did not have. The reference in this 
connection to the '' amusement of earth-bound souls " was evidently 
a description of the work of Phinuit and described his character 



PROFESSOR JAMES 233 

perfectly in a manner not at all familiar to Mrs. Smead, but with 
just such knowledge of Phinuit's work as Professor James had in 
life. A little later reference was made to the process as a " reser- 
voir of information," a very characteristic expression of Professor 
James, not at all known to Mrs. Smead. 

On September 19 Mr. Smead had a sitting in which some refer- 
ence was made to the '' Huldah episode," which Professor James 
had discussed in his report and about which he had had some cor- 
respondence with the Smeads. On September 21, another sitting 
was held and some pertinent, but not evidential, remarks were made 
about public mediums, suggested by a question of Mr. Smead. 

Just a month after the death of Professor James I had my first 
sitting with Mrs. Chenoweth, who knew a little more about him than 
did Mrs. Smead, but not enough to affect most of the material that 
purported to come from him. 

At the first sitting, on September 26, 19 10, Professor James did 
not try to communicate. He apparently wrote his name William 
at the end of the automatic writing, after G. P. and Dr. Hodgson 
had alluded to him in various ways. G. P. alluded to the promise 
that James would give me a sign, a circumstance of some signifi- 
cance, since Mrs. Smead had made a similar allusion, accompanied 
by the sign Omega, as we have seen above, wholly unknown to Mrs. 
Chenoweth. He also made a very pertinent reference to Mr. 
Dorr, who had been a warm friend of Professor James, a fact 
which, it happened, Mrs. Chenoweth did not know. In the com- 
munications of Dr. Hodgson, with reference to him, there were al- 
lusions to his own failure in a somewhat chaffing vein that would 
be natural when the two old friends met. Dr. Hodgson said for 
him, however, that some papers marked for the two Societies would 
be found ; but nothing of the kind has turned up among his papers. 
An allusion to his fear of a " phantom existence " was relevant, as 
he had made remarks of this kind in his life. 

The description of Dr. Hodgson's communications as " jerky and 
disjointed " was very characteristic, and closely connected with it a 
reference to his not being a '* deteriorated personality " was very 
striking, as it represented an opinion he had had of such com- 
munications before his death. He had always been discouraged by 



234 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

the disjointed and trivial character of the communications, and had 
never been induced to speak tolerantly of them until Dr. Hodgson 
offered his dream theory to account for the confusion and frag- 
mentary character of the messages. There was also a very perti- 
nent reference to the use of the word " death " and the reluctance 
of the Imperator group to use it through Mrs. Piper. Mrs. Che- 
noweth knew nothing of this peculiarity, which was very character- 
istically discussed here, the communicator explaining that he had 
emphasized it because Imperator had disliked it. It was also char- 
acteristic to ask me to get Mrs. Chenoweth to write down all she 
knew of him, this being the policy of the Society with Mrs. Piper 
when there was no other way to prove the exclusion of normally 
acquired knowledge regarding specific incidents. He then gave the 
sign Omega and stopped writing. 

I had no more sittings till October 20. On that date he wrote 
again. No distinct incident came out that would show by its 
environment that it could not have any other source, but most of 
the communications had characteristic touches. The description 
of the attitude and manner of scientific men was very like the 
author, who adopted an apologetic tone and a sympathy of their sit- 
uation which were far from the natural feelings of Mrs. Chenoweth. 
Reference was made to his own disappointment at not having been 
able to finish a certain work that he had undertaken, which I found 
by inquiry to be true and not known by the psychic. 

On October 29, Professor James came first. In alluding to the 
clearness of his memory he approached the problem of the con- 
fusions and mistakes, a characteristic question with him in life. 
Here he, like other communicators, ignores the " dream theory '* 
and refers all mistakes to limitations of the psychic. He cor- 
rectly indicated that his son was always called Harry in the family, 
a fact not known by Mrs. Chenoweth, but possibly guessable. He 
referred to a work which he said was nearly finished. This I 
found to be true and not known by Mrs. Chenoweth, whatever we 
may think about its exposure to the objection of guessing. The 
statement that his set of English " Proceedings " was not complete 
seems to have been untrue. The immediate reference to Sir Oliver 



PROFESSOR JAMES 235 

Lodge, though not evidential, is characteristic enough to be gen- 
uine. In the subliminal stage reference was made to " a little 
trunk, light yellow, for his affairs up stairs in an upper room, with 
a lot of little things in it, papers, articles and various little things 
placed away." At first no knowledge of such a trunk existed in 
the family, but later several trunks were found in the attic packed 
with such material. 

In the sitting of November 2, little was communicated that even 
requires mention from the evidential point of view. The allu- 
sion to the fact that the public thought him always occupied with 
psychic matters when it was not a fact was true and probably not 
at all known by Mrs. Chenoweth. The additional statement that 
he passed judgment on the work of others was also true and prob- 
ably not known by the psychic. The reference to the demands of a 
university on him as an excuse for not occupying himself with the 
subject and his reliance on Dr. Hodgson for information were very 
pertinent, whatever value we give them. 

On November 3, he returned tb the effort, and soon correctly 
characterized the work of Dr. Hodgson and his influence, and his 
own disappointment with the results when he came to them at first 
hand. All this represents matter which would not naturally come 
to Mrs. Chenoweth, with her slight knowledge of the man. Some 
interesting wit was shown in the passage which was more charac- 
teristic of the two men than of Mrs. Chenoweth. There was an 
interesting denial of having written a definite letter for the pur- 
pose of communicating it, because the communications often seemed 
to imply that there was such a letter and the public had been sat- 
urated with the belief that he had written one. There is no evi- 
dence in responsible quarters that he wrote it, though he did write an 
important letter after Dr. Hodgson's death. There was also an 
allusion to the illegibility of the writing in the Piper case, which had 
been a subject of discussion in life; the psychic most probably, I 
could say certainly, did not know the fact. The statement that 
he had much trouble with his eyes during the last year of his life 
was not correct. 

Then came the following important statements : 



236 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

" Do you recall coming to me once in the winter when snow was on the 
ground and we talked over these things and I gave you something to take 
away." 

(I recall the event very well.) 

" At that time we talked of the cleryman s wife who had the power of 
talking automatically." 

(Yes.) 

" Since then I have seen her or rather since I came into this life." 

(Yes, good.) 

" And I have made an effort to write with some success but not for 
long at a time. She does better when you are present." 

(Good.) , 

" Altho I find enough power to make some good expression when you 
are not there." 

(Good.) 

" It is more spasmodic than here but that is largely a question of en- 
vironment and companionship and desire. At that visit at my home you 
had to hurry away at last and some things were left for another time. I 
had been planning for a long time to see you. Indeed I was always plan- 
ning for a time to talk more with you." 

In the winter of 1906, while a heavy snow was on the ground, 
I had called on Professor James, and we had had a long talk on 
these matters, and he had given me a package of French publica- 
tions to take away with me. We talked of Mrs. Smead especially 
on that visit. She is the wife of a clergyman, this fact being known 
to Mrs. Chenoweth, but not that Professor James and I had talked 
about her on this or any other occasion, though it might be guessed 
that we would do so, at least on some occasion. But this was the 
only time we ever talked about her. That he had seen Mrs. Smead 
since he came into the new life has its evidence in the sign of Omega 
and perhaps other incidents in the detailed record. 

The accompanying statement that Mrs. Sme^d does better when 
I am present is true and also not known to Mrs. Chenoweth. The 
description of the case as " more spasmodic " than the present case 
was correct also and not known. Then allusion to my last call on 
him as a hurried one was correct also and not known. Whether he 
had planned, as said, to see and talk with me, is not verifiable. 
Then came the following: 

" I have a recollection of meeting you first with Richard. Do you re- 
call that?" 

(I do not at this moment, but may later.) 



PROFESSOR JAMES 237 

" It was at some small gathering or small company and after it was over 
we met and talked. That was about your own work with Mrs. Piper. I 
do not recall whether that was my first introduction to you. But it was 
about that time." 

(Yes, I think I recall something about it.) 

" It was not important enough then to make lasting impressions." 

(Yes, I think it was about the time of my talk at a certain house in 
Cambridge.) 

" I think so and I was impressed with your fervor and laughed with 
Richard about it afterwards." 

(I expect you did.) 

"I said to him that you would have that high hope shattered after a 
while." 

(Yes, I was converted long before Hodgson and you knew it.) 

" We had been through the stages of Imperator wonder and worship 
and still had the problem of Moses' identity unsolved. You remember 
how we were harassed by the conflicting statements and contradictory 
evidence." 

(Yes, perfectly.) 

" It was enough to make us swear but we stuck to the task and hid our 
chagrin as best we could." 

This is, in fact, a remarkable passage. I do not remember just 
when I first met Professor James. But it is very probable that we 
became acquainted with each other about 1899, when I addressed 
an audience at some conferences of Dr. James in Cambridge and at 
a symposium at the Hollis Street Theater on the subject of psychic 
research. A little later I addressed the meeting of the Society in 
Boston, which Professor James probably attended. I do not re- 
member. If I met him before that period I do not recall it. I 
remember, however, that once, when in Boston for some purpose, I 
went with him to a meeting of a little post-graduate club of philoso- 
phy students, to talk to them on my Piper work. 

The statements about the Imperator '' wonder and worship " and 
the difficulties into which the failure of Stainton Moses to prove 
his identity and that of Imperator and the group of alleged spirits 
with him, are all quite true and represent knowledge which Mrs. 
Chenoweth could not have without direct inquiry or casual informa- 
tion of an unusual kind. She might possibly learn the general state 
of mind regarding the phenomena as a whole, but would not get the 
reasons here assigned. 

On November 10, in the subliminal stage of the recovery of 



238 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

normal consciousness, the psychic remarked that Professor James 
had a Httle boat that looked like a motor boat and that it was at his 
summer place. He did have a row boat, but not a motor boat, at 
Chocorua. Then immediately came the following : 

" I see a roll like a diploma. It would all be in French except 
his name, and it is something very recently come into his life. 
It has never been hung up, but is still in the roll as if sent to him. 
He takes it out of a paste-board case and holds it up. It is an 
honorable thing. It pleased him very much. He saw it only a 
little before he went away." 

Mr. Henry James, Jr., the son, writes regarding this incident: 
" He received an honorary degree from the University of Geneva 
in 1909 after July. It was in French and is still in the roll." 

On November 11 came the following: 

" Bread and milk and berries often made the meal at night in the 
summer and the vegetable kingdom furnished a large part of my food 
always. I was fond of apples and some kind of fish. These may seem 
remarkable things to return from heaven to talk of, but you will ap- 
preciate their value." 

(Yes, perfectly.) 

" I can see the headlines in the newspapers now if this were given out, 
but if I had said I had broken bread with the Saviour or Saint Paul there 
would have been many who would have believed it a part of the life of a 
man of my reputation in my new sphere." 

In reply to inquiries, Mr. Henry James, Jr. writes : '* For some 
years before his death my father was a small eater and ate little 
meat. He was fond of apples and of course had his preferences 
in fish. He often ate berries with milk and cream, and I think 
sometimes mixed bread with them, but he practically never drank 
milk." The remarks about the newspapers are perfectly relevant 
for the communicator, but not at all beyond the intelligence of Mrs. 
Chenoweth. 

On November 12 I asked a question about a person, not men- 
tioning his name, who had furnished him certain incidents in his 
book ** Varieties of Religious Experience," not named there, but 
known to me. I did not get the reply I wanted, but he named the 
man in the following manner, after indicating that he had not 
caught the drift of my question at first. " I know what R. H. told 



PROFESSOR JAMES 239 

me of his own religious convictions after long investigations with 
the Imperator group." Dr. Hodgson was the name I wanted, and, 
though his relation to the book mentioned is not given, the reference 
to the effect of the investigations of the Imperator group on his 
religious convictions is correct and was most probably, one might 
say certainly, talked over with Professor James. 

In the communication he also said that I had told him some 
things. This was true and wholly unknown to Mrs. Chenoweth. 

He also made a spontaneous allusion to the endowment fund 
that I was seeking, and I remarked that he had made a slight gift 
to it. His reply was : ** That is a small sum. You refer to the 
first $100 subscription." He had agreed to double his fee of $10 
a year for two years, and had paid the first installment. It was 
not $100, as it appears to be here. But the word ** first " is the 
interesting one in the message. 

On November 18, he referred to the appearances of " deterior- 
ated and disintegrated capacity " in the messages, which had been 
a subject of much perplexity in his life, and when I started a dis- 
cussion of it by alluding to the *' dream or trance " theory of the 
communicator's condition he replied, correctly enough, that we 
had been told this by Imperator and that " the evidence submitted 
implied as much in many instances." Mrs. Chenoweth knew noth- 
ing of these facts, and whether they were inferable from what she 
might have seen in allusions to the theory in his report must be 
determined by each reader for himself. He denied the existence 
of a trance in himself, but admitted that there may be cases of it. 
A little later G. P. remarked that Professor James had *' knocked 
down some of the nine pins " and then on the next day he re- 
marked that Professor James had " given a black eye to one of 
Dick's theories," referring to Dr. Hodgson, who had first ad- 
vanced it. 

On November 19, the following came: 

" Do you remember the experience you had with Shaler and my thought 
about it ? " 

(I do not know the thought.) 

" I laughed when I read it and I knew the meaning of passing between 
the light and the connecting current, for we had been taught at the Piper 
light. It was not so realistic a lesson but we got it." 



240 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

This is an interesting incident and nothing of it can be ascribed 
to previous knowledge on the part of Mrs. Chenoweth, except 
that the Shaler incident could have been known by her subconscious, 
but not by her normal consciousness. At a sitting some years be- 
fore in New York, Professor Shaler purported to communicate. 
An accident occurred in which he got locked up for nearly an hour 
in the organism of the medium, and quite a dramatic incident hap- 
pened in releasing him. I sent the record to Professor James and 
I have no doubt he laughed about it, and it is true that the same 
causes were assigned for similar phenomena through Mrs. Piper. 
The facts were not known to Mrs. Chenoweth. 

In the subliminal stage of the recovery he communicated in- 
directly the following: 

"I can see the front of Professor James's house and I see a lady going 
there with flowers for Mrs. James. She opens the door and the lady 
stays only a few minutes." 

(Did you say "a man and a lady"?) 

*' No, just a lady. Perhaps I said and. She has a big bunch of flowers. 
I think she is taking them for Thanksgiving. They are big flowers and 
look like chrysanthemums, not all yellow but some violet ones." 

Inquiry brought the following information from Mr. Henry 
James, Jr. : " A friend of my mother's, a lady, made a short call 
just before Thanksgiving, leaving chrysanthemums. She was let 
in by the housemaid." This, of course, was not known by Mrs. 
Chenoweth. 

On November 27, while controlling directly, he said that the last 
thing he remembered eating was a bit of bread of which he ate but 
a taste or two, and then referred to uncooked eggs. My informa- 
tion in reply to inquiry was : " Not true as to the eggs, but he ate 
a part of a piece of bread the morning before his death." 

On December 8 Professor James remarked that he treated let- 
ters on the subject of psychic research with the same care and re- 
spect as if he had been engaged by the Society to answer them, 
which he was not, and that the whole community seemed to look 
on him as an adviser in these matters. He added also that Mrs. 
James tried to relieve him when they became too much for him. 
Inquiry showed that this was true, save that Mrs. James was not the 



PROFESSOR JAMES 241 

only member of the family that aided him in such situations. It 
might have been guessed that he received many letters, but his man- 
ner of treating them, which was correctly stated, would not be so 
readily guessed. After a failure correctly to answer a question by 
me he lost control, and Dr. Hodgson, acting as amanuensis for 
him, mentioned a ring which was said to have been put away. In- 
quiry showed that he never had a ring. But the next incident was 
more successful. He referred to his father's watch and stated 
that he had used it for some time. Inquiry showed that he had 
worn his father's watch many years. 

Following this was a reference to an English cap which he was 
said to have worn; it was compared with Dr. Hodgson's, said 
to have been Scotch. Dr. Hodgson had had a Scotch cap and I 
learn from inquiry that Professor James had had several English 
hats and caps. 

I arrived at the Smeads on May 28, and learned that on February 
6 Mrs. Smead had had a vision of the Greek letter Omega and a 
monogram of the letters F and F, the initials of Mr. Podmore. 
The meaning of these they did not understand until May 4, when 
Mr. Smead learned for the first time that Mr. Podmore was dead 
and Mrs. Smead was told the facts because the " Outlook," in which 
his death was mentioned, was likely to be read by her. But the 
Omega had no meaning to them. When told of it I recognized it, 
but said nothing, hoping to have it come in the writing. The let- 
ter, however, as readers will recall, was given through Mrs. Cheno- 
weth as Professor James's sign and was also alluded to earlier 
through Mrs. Smead. 

In the first sitting the communicator purported to be Mr. Pod- 
more and in the course of the writing the Greek letter Omega 
was drawn with a cross after it. Seeing that there might be 
confusion I asked who had made that sign and a little surprise w^as 
expressed at my not recognizing the sign. In a few moments I 
was told that it was Mr. Podmore's. I saw that this statement 
was wrong, but quietly accepted it as if it were correct and said 
nothing. On June 6, Professor James appeared for the first time 
in the series, and after mentioning his son William, evidently in- 
tending his son Henry, however, as I judge from the contents of 



242 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

the reference, he twice wrote the Greek Omega with the cross in it 
and explained that it was he that came with Mr. Podmore. This 
explained and corrected the erroneous statement that the Omega 
had been given by Mr. Podmore. 

Allusion w^as made to his heart trouble, which Mrs. Smead did 
not know about, and to his having said little about it to his family. 
A fairly clear reference was made to his difficulty in breathing, 
about which Mrs. Smead knew nothing. He had suffered from 
oedema of the lungs. Apparently in the message, however, refer- 
ence is to earlier periods of difficulty in breathing, which gave rise 
to his retirement from college; the circumstances were explained in 
the communications with fair definiteness, Mrs. Smead knowing 
nothing about the facts. 

Then followed a reference to the Piper case, which I quote for 
its pertinence, omitting the confusion. 

" I have so many times thought of our mistaken views of the whole 
problem when we began in the early days before you joined in our experi- 
ments. It was more with some a case of amusement. Do you know that 
little Frenchman has not yet put in his appearance to me." 

(No, that's good.) 

'' No, I think we will have some interesting talks." 

(I hope so and you can report them.) 

" I certainly will if it is possible. I will try to find out why he was so 
stubborn, yes, persistent, in having it as he wished. He may try to go 
back to the light now that we are not using it." 

It was correct that the earlier experiments with Mrs. Piper were 
attended by many people more out of amusement than for any 
serious scientific purpose, in the early days before I had even heard 
of the case, much less joined in the movement. All this Mrs. Smead 
knew absolutely nothing about. She may Jiave known that the 
control claimed to be a Frenchman, but of the other incidents she 
was wholly ignorant. She was equally ignorant of the obstinacy of 
Phinuit and of all that is implied in the true and characteristic way 
in which the period and conduct of Phinuit are here described. 
He then terminated his communications with the sign Omega and 
the cross. 

On June 7 he communicated again, and referred to " a moun- 
tain that looks like snow all over," and remarked that '' it is only 



PROFESSOR JAMES 243 

a short distance from our house." He added that he " could do 
no mental work while there " and that " we were nearer that moun- 
tain than you " and that he " was glad to have you talk with me 
during my sojourn there." 

I recognized Chocorua in the reference to the mountain and his 
house near it. His summer home is at the base of that moun- 
tain, which is quite bare and white in appearance. I spent the sum- 
mer in which he died nine miles from his place, and called to see 
him, though he was too ill to see me. Mrs. Smead knew that he had 
died at Chocorua and had herself lived not far from it many years 
before; she would therefore remember its appearance. She also 
knew that I had spent the summer not far away. But she did not 
know that he could do no work there nor that I had called. 

He then recurred to his son, apparently for the purpose of mak- 
ing a reference to his city home, which he mentioned as the place 
where his son was living. His son is living in the old home in the 
city, a fact not known to Mrs. Smead. 

I asked him whose picture was in the library, having in my mind 
the picture of Hodgson that he had mentioned through Mrs. Cheno- 
weth. In reply he asked if I meant the picture in a frame on the 
wall, and I replied that I knew nothing about the frames. He ' 
then said he had several in the books, and in a moment he said, the 
telephone having rung in the hall and possibly producing some con- 
fusion in Mrs. Smead's mind, *' I cannot remember just now, but 
I said I had one of each of us, Hodgson's and myself too." 

I had previously learned from Mr. Henry James, Jr., that he had 
a picture of Dr. Hodgson on the wall; and after this sitting I 
learned that he also had a painting of himself. Mrs. Smead knew 
nothing of either picture. 

On June 14 he indicated that he had been trying to make his 
presence felt to Mrs. James, and requested me to ask her whether 
she had not felt him. Inquiry proved that she had not had any im- 
pressions of his presence. A few minutes later he indicated that his 
son Will, whose name the Smeads did not know, had cared for his 
correspondence and helped him in his work at the college. It was 
apparent to me that he had his son Henry in mind ; and it is curious 
to note that Mrs. Smead knew his name but not the name William. 



244 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

Inquiry showed that all the members of the family had at one 
time or another helped him iri his correspondence, but none had 
helped him in the college. 

Professor James then referred to his daughter, of whose exist- 
ence Mrs. Smead knew nothing, and implied that she was psychic 
and might write. No trace of psychic power in her is known. 

In the course of his allusions to the surprise which some people 
felt on their arrival in the other world, I made the remark that it is 
easy to believe in atoms, but not easy to believe in a soul. The reply 
was a confused but very characteristic discussion of the atomic 
and ether hypotheses, in which he said that they are mere hypotheses 
and aids to our thinking and memory, thus expressing scientific con- 
ceptions which are entirely foreign to the experience of Mrs. Smead. 
During the discussion he expressed the desire to discuss the ethereal 
body at length, I remarked that it would not be proof of identity, 
and then asked him if he remembered Pragmatism. The reply, very 
pertinent, was: *' Yes, but not identity either. Only interesting 
to the philosophers." This was a correct appreciation of the case. 
Mrs. Smead does not know the word '' pragmatism," nor that Pro- 
fessor James represented that school of thought. 

Thus terminated the experiments for Professor James. At the 
last sitting another communicator came. The messages from Pro- 
fessor James through Mrs. Smead were not any better than those 
through Mrs. Chenoweth. They are wholly different in style, ow- 
ing to the different types of mediumship and despite the fact that the 
method of automatic writing is identical so far as we can see. 
There is less chaff in the work of Mrs. Smead than in the work 
of Mrs. Chenoweth, probably due to the method of development 
and the controls, together with the different habits and tempera- 
ments of the two ladies. However this may be, it is noticeable 
that through Mrs. Smead Professor James can get at the gist of a 
subject more clearly than through Mrs. Chenoweth, though his mes- 
sages are so fragmentary that the evidence does not seem to be any 
better. 

There is one incident of peculiar interest and importance, which 
adds much to the value of Professor James's messages. It is a most 
interesting piece of cross-reference. On the twelfth of September, 



PROFESSOR JAMES 245 

19 10, Professor James, purporting to communicate through Mrs. 
Smead, said that he had tried to communicate through Mrs. Verrall 
living in England, naming her and her locality, the latter simply as 
" across the water." Two months later through Mrs. Chenoweth 
he again mentioned having tried through Mrs. Verrall. Later in- 
quiry in England of Miss Alice Johnson, secretary of the EngHsh 
Society, resulted in the following report. Mrs. Verrall had a 
dream on September 12, 19 10, in which she felt that Professor 
James was trying to communicate. My sitting with Mrs. Smead 
was held at 10 a. m. of that date, several hours earlier than London 
time, so that her dream must have been that morning. A record of 
the dream had been made by Mrs. Verrall. The reference through 
Mrs. Chenoweth was made, as indicated, two months later, but co- 
incides with the fact that Mrs. Verrall had been impressed with the 
effort of Professor James. That is to say, Mrs. Verrall had had 
the impression of the presence of Professor James and two mediums 
in America, or Professor James through them, soon afterwards 
stated in their trances that Professor James had tried to communi- 
cate through Mrs. Verrall. No other psychics were mentioned. 
Both psychics knew that Mrs. Verrall did similar work, but they 
had the same opportunities to know of others also doing the same 
work. The most natural person to mention was Mrs. Piper, as her 
reputation and supposed w^ork at the time would most naturally 
provoke subconscious guessing. But not a hint of her appeared 
and during the whole series of experiments both psychics were either 
remarkably silent about Mrs. Piper where they had years before 
referred to her freely or they acted as if Mrs. Piper was not active 
in the work, which was the fact, unknown to myself as well as to 
the psychics. Hence the coincidence with respect to Mrs. Verrall 
is all the more striking. 

But there is one set of incidents which are perhaps as important 
as any that I know in connection with Professor James. I must go 
back a little to make them clear. 

Some years ago after the death of Dr. Hodgson and before that 
of Professor James, while the latter was lecturing in England, a 
reference was made to him through Mrs. Chenoweth in a somewhat 
pertinent way. At about the same time Dr. Hodgson, purporting 



246 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

to communicate through Miss Gaule, said that he had seen Profes- 
sor James in pink pajamas and that he looked cute in them. I 
wrote to Professor James, and received the reply that he was 
wearing " pink pajamas " at the time. It is not possible for the 
psychic to have known the facts, whatever we may think about 
guessing. To test the reaction, when he was claiming to communi- 
cate through Mrs. Chenoweth, I once asked him if he remembered 
anything about *' pink pajamas," and the reply was in no respect 
evidential, though apparently appreciative of the significance of 
the mention of them. Later I thought to try a cross-reference with 
Mrs. Smead and asked him to say '' pink pajamas " there. In the 
series of sittings held with her there was an entire failure to allude 
to them. 

But recently a young boy in the family of a clergyman developed 
mediumistic powers ; and, both in automatic writing and by crystal 
gazing, in messages appearing as visual writing, when I was not 
present at all, Professor James purported to communicate, and, 
mentioning me, referred to pink pajamas and to a black necktie. 
He said: " I want you to give Hyslop two pairs of pink pajamas 
and a black necktie for Christmas." The parents referred to the 
facts as amusing, without any knowledge of their significance. I 
had kept the incidents absolutely to myself. They were quite as- 
tonished to find how pertinent they were. The black necktie I 
used at sittings, and it had belonged to Professor James. The 
reference to *' pink pajamas " explains itself as the cross-reference 
which should have come through Mrs. Smead. The association of 
his name and mine with them strengthens the reference. 

When we estimate the messages that thus purport to come from 
Professor James, we have to admit that they will disappoint the 
general public. While errors and false statements are not evidence 
against the claim that the effort originates from Professor James, 
the public is so ignorant of what the problem is that it will, as usual, 
commit worse errors in its judgment than spirits commonly do in 
facts. Of course, we cannot claim that errors are evidence, unless 
they are of a certain type, but they are not objections; they are 
problems. The actual errors, however, are not the primary weak- 
ness of the data purporting to come from Professor James. It is 



PROFESSOR JAMES 247 

rather the paucity of the messages that lessens their value. The 
weakness, moreover, is much increased by the nature of the circum- 
stances. Professor James was so well-known to the public gen- 
erally that it is extremely difficult to obtain facts whose value might 
not be nullified by previous knowledge. A more obscure person 
would have far better chance of transmitting evidence of identity. 
But there are instances that cannot be discredited in any way. The 
Greek letter Omega and the cross cannot be impeached except by 
accusing me of collusion. The records were known to no living 
person but me, as I had made them myself and locked them up out 
of sight. The same assurance may be given of the '' pink pa- 
jama " incident, my visit to Professor James and the package, the 
talk before his " seminar," his diet, his last meal from a crust 
of bread. 

There are many facts as evidential as these, which cannot be 
made clear to general readers. They can be appreciated only by 
those who knew the mind of Professor James intimately either 
from personal acquaintance or from his books. But any one who 
examines these obscure incidents illustrating characteristic ideas 
will find that, while one or two of them might be obtainable from 
reading his published writings, the large number could not easily 
be obtained except by a minute acquaintance with his writings, 
which neither psychic possesses. 

On the whole his evidence is not what was desired, at least for 
the satisfaction of the hungry public. Fortunately Professor 
James himself remained true to his ideas of the subject while he 
was living, namely, the need of small and trivial facts to prove 
personal identity. In the investigation of psychic phenomena no 
one ever insisted more rigidly than he that personal identity is the 
fundamental problem and that only the remotest trivial facts 
would prove that identity. The " pink pajama " incident can- 
not be surpassed for evidential value, especially in its cross-refer- 
ence, to anyone who intelligently understands this problem. The 
only disappointing thing for those interested is the paucity of the 
evidence, not its omission of characteristic phrases. 

The present writer is not at all surprised at the outcome. His 
experience has been that intellectual minds have special difficulty 



248 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

in establishing personal identity. Their preoccupation is with 
themes, which do not lend themselves to sensory imagery. The 
pictorial or clairvoyant way of representing thoughts is adapted 
to sensory imagery, more particularly of the visual type. The ab- 
stractions of philosophic thought do not lend themselves to ac- 
curate representation by this method. 

One incident should not remain unnoticed. The newspapers 
published widely at the time of his death the report that Professor 
James had left a posthumous letter whose contents he was to di- 
vulge, if he found himself surviving death and it was possible to 
transmit them. Allusion was made through one of the psychics 
to something of the kind, but a thorough investigation showed that 
there was no evidence whatever anywhere known to the family 
or anyone else that such a letter had ever been written. 



CHAPTER XVI 
MARK TWAIN 

SOON after I had published a review of the work of Patience 
Worth, I learned from one of the persons connected with 
that work, Mrs. Emily Grant Hutchings, that she was get- 
ting Patience Worth through another psychic. Just as the interest 
in this fact was beginning to grow, and when I had formed my 
plan for a cross-reference experiment to see whether I could get 
Patience Worth myself, the whole work of this new psychic 
changed. She began to get communications purporting to come 
from Mark Twain. 

The psychic in the case was a Mrs. Hays, of St. Louis. The 
circumstances, however, were such that Mrs. Hutchings was as 
necessary to the phenomena as was Mrs. Hays. Both ladies had 
to hold a hand on the index or planchette part of the ouija, other- 
wise it would not move. The interest in this fact lies in the attempt 
to measure the probabilities that the subconscious of both ladies 
could act harmoniously enough to spell any word whatever, to say 
nothing of writing books characteristic of a man whose works only 
one of them had read. Under these conditions two volumes were 
spelled out. 

Both ladies are in private life, Mrs. Hutchings being a writer 
on art for the St. Louis " Globe-Democrat," and Mrs. Hays a writer 
for various papers. No pecuniary reward was involved in the 
work, except such as might come from the risks of publication. 
No taint of professional mediumship is contained in either case and 
all ordinary objections may be discounted at the outset. The 
mediums are open to any investigation of character that skepticism 
may adjudge desirable. The first question to occur to the curious 
inquirer would be whether the work was not done as a literary ad- 
venture merely pretending to come from Mark Twain, a sort of 
jeu d' esprit to help in the advertisement of the work by the claim 
that it came from the celebrated humorist. The one fact which 

249 



250 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

might arouse this suspicion is, that both ladies are writers and are 
not in a trance when the work is done. But students know that 
automatism is not limited to trance conditions. It is quite common 
in normal consciousness. Any question on this point must be an- 
swered by the critic's own study of the two ladies. 

Mrs. Hutchings had not read anything of Mark Twain's until 
after much of the work had been done. Mrs. Hays was more fa- 
miliar with his work. There are four sources for a theory of sub- 
conscious memory to account for the phenomena, (i) Mrs. Hays 
had read something of Mark Twain's work. (2) She had ex- 
pressed the desire that he would communicate, thus providing the 
condition for a Freudian explanation for his appearance. (3) She 
has a very keen sense of humor herself, with a tinge of Mark 
Twain's drollery, though with less compass and depth. (4) She 
also, like Mark Twain, possesses a vein of melancholy, though 
without his irony. Perhaps it would favor the same interpretation 
to add that Mrs. Hays has psychic powers in other directions, which 
favor the dissociation necessary to produce work of the kind. 

The suspicion that subconscious fabrication might be the explana- 
tion made it necessary to experiment in a decisive manner. The 
conditions just mentioned were ideal for the theory of subcon- 
scious production, and without experiment for cross-reference it 
was idle to maintain that the work was supernormal. There was 
absolutely no internal evidence of the supernormal, except little 
incidents and references in the work, and perhaps its general char- 
acter involving a better digest of his writings than was normally 
probable. These suggested independent origin, despite the general 
presumption that prior knowledge inspired the main subject. But 
these points would not be conclusive to the hard headed skeptic; 
hence it was necessary that I should try experiments for cross-ref- 
erence for evidence that Mark Twain was at the bottom of the 
affair. 

After about half the sittings were over, Mrs. Chenoweth one day 
remarked to me that she had recently felt impressed that she should 
read Mark Twain, adding that she had never read him, but thought 
she ought to know something of the great American humorist. It 
thus appears that she was quite ignorant of his work. 



MARK TWAIN 251 

Nothing that had reached the knowledge of Mrs. Chenoweth had 
been pubHshed about the case. A western paper or two had men- 
tioned it, but the one that had said most about it is not a daily and 
has a very small circulation in the East. But it would not have 
helped her any to have known the facts. My purpose and the 
identity of the persons concerned were effectually concealed from 
her. She had never seen nor known the ladies and did not know 
that I intended to experiment with them. Moreover they were 
taken separately to the sittings. In her normal state she did not 
even see either of them, and she could not see them in her trance, 
because they sat behind her, being admitted to the room after she 
had gone into the trance. Every precaution was taken to conceal 
their identity from her. Under these circumstances ten sittings 
were held; I then continued the experiments after the ladies had 
left Boston. I took Mrs. Hays first because she was the less prom- 
inent of the two ladies and was evidently the main psychic. Mrs. 
Hutchings then followed with her five sittings. At intervals be- 
tween the sittings with Mrs. Chenoweth I had sittings with the 
two ladies themselves, using the ouija board, with a view to giving 
suggestions at these sittings as to what I wanted with Mrs. Chen- 
oweth, so that I could remain silent in the main experiments, and 
also with some hope that these sittings might help in the effort 
to get cross-reference. 

Evidence of the supernormal appeared at once, but there was 
very little hint of Mark Twain until several sittings had been held. 
The kind of work he had done was obscurely indicated, but not 
until the fifth sitting did specific evidence of his identity ap- 
pear. 

At the first sitting for Mrs. Hays the first sentence was : " The 
Girl is a light." This was not only a correct hit, but the use of 
the word " Girl " was especially significant, as it was the name by 
which Mark Twain called her with Mrs. Hutchings in the ouija 
board experiments. Immediately the control remarked that " her 
sensitiveness was of interest" to me, which was especially true, 
and the first time that so prompt a recognition of such an interest 
had taken place. In a moment an allusion was made to her father, 
who is dead, and his desire to communicate indicated, and then 



252 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

some diagnosis of her powers followed. Immediately reference 
was made to '' hands and visions," with the remark that she " sees 
things sometimes." Mrs. Hays is quite clairvoyant and has picto- 
graphic visions in one type of her work. Evidently the allusion 
to " hands " was a fragmentary intimation of the ouija board work, 
but it was not further developed at the time. It was said that 
some of these experiences were "' written to make clear to some 
one else that they occurred." If this referred to the work of Mark 
Twain it was correct. It was specifically stated that these experi- 
ments were " not coincidences," which is particularly true of Mark 
Twain's work, which consists of posthumously written stories. It 
was stated that this work has *' a real purpose." 

Allusion was then made to the mother and to an Aunt Elizabeth ; 
the former was dead and it was not known whether the latter was 
dead or not, though such a person and relationship were correct. 
Then came an intimation that a little boy was present, a child of 
the sitter. She had lost a stillborn boy some ten years previously. 
The sitter was said to be quite nervous. This was true. 

When I asked who it was that was doing the work at home, un- 
derstanding of my desire was indicated, with the intimation that 
identification would have to be established by messages ** given 
through another source," implying the need of cross-reference. As 
the reason for this need, there was made what was tantamount to 
the admission that the subconscious might color a personality in 
the transmission: for the communicator said that "there is often 
a play of imagination to contend with, not always in the mind of 
the girl, but within the minds of the others," suggesting that more 
influences than the subliminal of the medium are likely to affect 
the results. 

Reference to her father followed, and to his lack of interest in 
the subject, which was true in his lifetime. An allusion to the 
trance of the sitter was not correct, though there were signs of an 
incipient trance in some tendencies to anaesthesia and numbness.- 
There followed a reference to an aunt and to some prophetic power 
of the sitter. The latter point is correct, but the identity of the 
aunt was not indicated. In a moment came a statement about 
*' Jess," which suggested vaguely what I wanted to ascertain ; 



MARK TWAIN 253 

namely, the influence of Mark Twain; but it was not developed 
into anything definite. 

At the next sitting the first communicator gave no evidence of 
his identity or of the supernormal, but on a change of control an 
allusion to " voices and sounds " was made, which was not espe- 
cially important, though relevant, as raps had once been heard 
just before the death of the sitter's daughter. '' Voices " do not 
form part of the psychic experience of the lady, but Mark Twain's 
daughter is a vocalist. A reference to *' dexterous movements of 
the hand " was made, probably representing an attempt to speak 
of the work on the ouija board. Then came an allusion to music 
which was very pertinent, whether it meant something in the mind 
of Mark Twain or of the lady, as the latter is passionately fond 
of music and often hears it, as it were, in the form of auditory 
hallucinations, and the former stated later that music was referred 
to in the interest of establishing his own identity, as the living 
member of his family is a musician. But I am not sure that this 
later statement by him referred to this special incident. I denied, 
in the course of the communications, the pertinence of what was 
said, not knowing the meaning of the allusion to music. 

It is possible that the allusion to music was a confused attempt 
to mention his daughter and her husband, the former of whom is a 
singer and the latter a pianist. 

We had not yet any distinct hint of what I wanted. The super- 
normal had been vaguely indicated, but nothing that would lead 
me to believe that Mark Twain was present. 

At the next sitting the first thing that occurred was an indica- 
tion that Mark Twain was present and that the course of affairs 
had changed. His initial " M " and possibly the second letter 
*' a " came at once, and then a message about his purpose, which 
was amply confirmed in the work at both places; namely, to help 
the world on a vital matter. He had signified this purpose in 
the work with the two ladies. He referred to the difference be- 
tween his work at the present light and with the ladies; and to a 
*' manuscript," in a statement which represented its nature well 
enough and coincided with what had just been done by the ladies, 
who had submitted it to a publisher in Boston. He described the 



254 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

work as '' philosophical," which is not strictly correct, though " al- 
legorical " would have described it. I had not seen the work and 
could not tell its nature, nor had I at that time been told its char- 
acter. 

For some time the communications continued to be pertinent 
though fragmentary, containing an evident attempt to give his name. 
" M two " or " M 2," which was very significant, came at once. 
Then the attempt resulted only in a possible reference to Stainton 
Moses, which I interpret " Moms " to be, and then Myers, both of 
whom often help in such crises. But " Ma " came clearly enough 
and then the subliminal made a prolonged effort to get the full 
name. " Ma " came first and then " S. T.," which were initials 
of his name, the first of his real name and the second of his as- 
sumed name. Then followed " Mark," whose meaning is apparent, 
and the initial of his second name. But the subconscious evidently 
supposed that Saint Mark was meant and alluded to " Saint." 
Then the name Mark was spelled out, though the subconscious evi- 
dently thought that Mark Hanna was intended, as Mrs. Chenoweth 
asked me if I knew any woman by the name of Hannah. The 
next day Mark Twain alluded to this mistake in a humorous way. 
But the most significant indication of his identity was the " M 
two," as it came before the subconscious had any hint of his iden- 
tity. This expression was a correct indication of his name, which 
he had adopted after his experience as a pilot on the Mississippi 
River. It came in full later, but from this time on the case was 
clear. It is important that he thus established his identity with 
Mrs. Hays before Mrs. Hutchings took her place at the next 
sitting. 

At the next sitting the most interesting phenomenon is the devi- 
ation from the usual course, which is for only relatives of the sitter 
to appear. Instead, Mark Twain came at once. First he tried to 
give his real name rather than his nom de plume, which, whether 
intentionally or not, is especially significant, as it did not exactly 
continue the effort with which the sitting of the day before closed. 
I got first the capital letter '' S " and then " Sam," followed by 
" CI," his name, as everyone knows, being Samuel Clemens. From 
the confusion with Mark Hanna on the day before, it is evident 



MARK TWAIN 255 

that the subconscious had not yet any inkling of his identity. With 
the failure of the effort to get the full name came the following 
statement : " Funny man cannot write his own name without 
so much fuss, but when one assumes so many titles one must in- 
evitably make a mark in the world of literature, even if that lit- 
erature assumes the ponderousness of Psychic Research or Chris- 
tian Science." 

This last sentence is packed full of marks of his identity. Evi- 
dently the use of the word *' mark," especially in association with 
the reference to " titles," was intended as a play on his pseudonym ; 
the allusion to Christian Science is to the title to one of his works. 
We must remember that the subconscious had not yet caught on to 
the real name. Immediately after the sentence quoted he referred 
to " Hartford " and the statement added : " Place, not person. To 
think that any one could take a Connecticut Yankee for an Ohio 
Statesman. Joke lost on you. To think a man of my superior 
hirsute growth should ever be mistaken for the bald and baby face 
of him who ruled a President." 

Here again is a statement packed full of evidence of personal 
identity. It refers to Mark Hanna, who had the reputation of 
ruling President McKinley. Mark Twain had a very bushy head 
of hair and Mark Hanna was bald and clean shaven. Mrs. Chen- 
oweth, of course, knew of Mark Hanna and possibly of Mark 
Twain's old home at Hartford, Connecticut. But she did not 
know normally that he was communicating nor that his presence 
had any connection with the sitter.^ Immediately came the fol- 
lowing spontaneously, connecting the present with the previous sit- 
ting: 

"The 2 Marks, my name, exactly fits the case, the 2 Marks. Never 
mind. You know who I am now and it is all right for me." 

(I knew it all along, but we stubborn scientific men have to get it on 
paper.) 

" I forgive every Scientist except the Christian, and that is a matter of 
principle with me." 

1 Reference to his " A Connecticut Yankee at the Court of King Arthur " is 
also probably intended, and was " lost on " J. H. H., being noted by Miss Tubby, 
his secretary, when reading proof of this record. 



256 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

The reader can see the point of this from the remark above that 
" 2 Marks " came from his experience as a pilot, and from his rela- 
tion to Christian Science, which he treated contemptuously. 

He then referred to his living in New York, whither he had gone 
after leaving Hartford. He then explained, after indicating why 
music had been referred to before, that his return had the import- 
ance of being intended to show that he " was not a dead one." He 
then stated that this was not his first appearance, and that he had 
" practiced some through the hand of the girl," this term ** girl " 
being the name by which he had called the two ladies in his work 
with them. He then compared his work with that of Frank Stock- 
ton, remarking that the latter had better look after his laurels. The 
whole passage was full of humor. 

After this humorous account of his purpose he turned to the 
serious aspect of it and remarked : " I have a way of making light 
of it only that I may better keep hold, but it is the vital matter of 
creation." This reflected the serious aspect of his nature, which 
was not so well known as the humorous, the serious trait being 
known only to a few, or to those who could read between the lines. 
Mrs. Chenoweth had not read any of his works. 

He took up the humorous vein again in a passage too long to 
quote and not otherwise evidential. But he returned to say that he 
had been somewhat familiar with the general subject of psychic 
research before his death. I knew this to be a fact and asked him 
to give an instance or two. He referred to a ** vision like a mist 
rising and forming a picture before me," and then to conversation 
with some friends. I had in mind his experiences in " mental 
telegraphy," as he called them. But he did not mention these. 
The sitting terminated with a reference to " Samu-el," his first Chris- 
tian name, too well-known to be evidential. 

At the next sitting Mark Twain began with the effort to get the 
name of his living daughter, which I did not know at the time, and 
succeeded in all but the letter " a " in Clara, which he completed 
later. He gave the name Mark in connection with it, and then 
made an effort to give the password which he had agreed on in St. 
Louis, but in which he did not succeed at the time, though he got 
the first letter of it, which I did not acknowledge. I did not under- 



MARK TWAIN 257 

stand it until he explained what he was trying to do. He went at 
it in a roundabout way. The following long passage shows what 
he was doing: 

" It is not a safe thing for a man to go to a foreign land without his pass- 
ports and I begin to think this is worse than any customs a traveler passes 
through, for passports are not enough. He must give his ancestry and 
his innermost purposes to a hard headed wretch who sits in command of 
the light. By the way why do you call the automatist a light ? " 

(It was originated by the Imperator group beginning with Stainton 
Moses and the Piper case, and I followed suit.) 

" It may be to keep light craft away, as the rocks and shoals make havoc 
with all except strong swimmers." 

(I understand. Do you remember the password?) 

" You are referring to work done at another place which was to be re- 
peated here s ... or anywhere, if I found myself able to come." 

(Yes, exactly.) 

" And I have known from the first that I must get that through in order 
to prove that I was the same spirit who has been doing some things at 
home." 

(Yes, exactly.) 

" Now I referred to passports with that in mind and I intend to make 
good my plan to help them. You know whom I mean, the girls." 

(Yes.) 

Much of this explains itself. It has been true in recent years, 
though not before his death, that a traveler has to give his ancestry 
and purposes to custom officers or government officials, as well as 
a passport. Mrs. Chenoweth knew absolutely nothing about this. 
The query about the use of the word " light " turned out to be 
especially relevant. Mrs. Hutchings told me that Mark had used 
the word " automatist " in his work with her and Mrs. Hays. He 
is only the second person who has ever used the term through 
Mrs. Chenoweth, the other being Mrs. Verrall, who used it regu- 
larly in life. The word '' light " or " medium," usually the former, 
is the one used in the work of Mrs. Chenoweth. 

It was a fair hit, not necessarily implied by my query about the 
password, to refer to work elsewhere and then ask me if I knew 
what he meant by " the girls." The word " Girls," as already ex- 
plained, was the one used by him to denote the ladies. The letter 
" s " is the first one in the password. This came later, but the 
consciousness of its importance is clear in the passage here. 



258 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

« 

There followed at once a reference to the sitter's mother as one 
who helped with the work. Mrs. Hutchings's mother was dead, 
and in a moment she apparently took control, but the sequel showed 
that Mark was the intermediary. The only, evidential incident in 
her message was a reference to her head being dizzy. She had 
died from diabetes and during the last months of her life she had 
been very dizzy much of the time. The reference to a child was 
not clear until a little later. Mark Twain assumed control for a 
time and then the mother came and tried again but got only the 
initial '' S " of Mark Twain's real Christian name. Then the sub- 
liminal came on for a time, during which the allusion to the " child," 
now said to be " a little brother " of the sitter, made it evident who 
was meant in the first reference. The sitter's mother had lost a 
little boy, who was, of course, a little brother to the sitter. She 
then made a reference to " Two Sams," which was very important, 
though wholly unknown to me. Sam Jones and Samuel Clemens, 
Mark Twain, had both come to the ladies in St. Louis. 

The automatic writing then returned with an attempt to give 
the initials of Mark Twain's real name; they were given as " S. 
C. C," which were incorrect, though I did not know it at the 
time. Later he spontaneously corrected the error. He then al- 
luded to some experiences as he was dying, stating that he had seen 
his wife while he was in a semi-conscious state. After some non- 
evidential remarks he tried to correct the mistake in '' S. C. C," 
but failed. He then compared me to P. T. Barnum, saying under 
oral control that I " had an elephant on my hands in the work." 

At the beginning of the next sitting it was evidently the mother 
of Mrs. Hutchings who occupied the time at first, though her com- 
munications were invaded by an effort to get the name Clara, which 
was that of Mark Twain's living daughter. It was evident through- 
out that the communications were an interfusion of the mother 
and Mark Twain, as they combined the mental attitude of the 
sitter's mother with some of the affairs of Mark Twain connected 
with the dictation of the two volumes through the ladies and the 
ouija board. The mother was probably the intermediary. There 
was an allusion to a picture, said to be a photograph of himself, 
in the room where the work was done. 



MARK TWAIN 259 

This reference to a photograph has considerable interest. The 
record shows that it was associated with his daughter Clara. Now 
Mrs. Hutchings had a picture of Mark Twain in the room where 
she and Mrs. Hays did their work. It was a photograph taken at 
the time when he made his lecture tour around the world, his wife 
and daughter Clara with him. In the communications he had al- 
w^ays used the word " home " to mean the place where the com- 
munications were made to the ladies. He was evidently referring 
to his daughter in this connection in order specially to identify the 
picture, as there were many photographs of himself besides this 
one. 

Then came a reference to the " writing board," which definitely 
implied the ouija board, and then an effort to tell the nature of the 
work done, which was said not to be '' personal messages, but more 
like editorial," with emphasis on the word " editorial." So far 
as this went it was correct enough, and also the further statement 
that the work was now almost complete. The following is the 
message on the point just mentioned: 

" You have both been so careful to eliminate all that would mar the 
beauty of the pure expressions he wished to use." 

(I understand, and do you know the name of . . . ?) [Writing went 
on.] " Book." (Yes.) " Of course I do, for was it not a part of the 
plan over here to have the complete work, name, title, size, description 
given to you about the make up &c." 

(Yes.) [Sitter nodded assent.] 

" It is not a joke at all, but a very earnest endeavor to make an addition 
to literature, a sort of posthumous work, see?" 

(Yes, perfectly.) 

" And the fact that the style and the form may be well-known to you 
does not make it less valuable spirit autobiography." 

(I understand.) 

" I feel that it is right to have this go on, because it will wake up some 
of the sleeping friends who had no idea of the possibility of such contact. 

" I want the love we feel to be the incentive to further effort. Harpers 
people may help. You will know best what to do about that." 

This is a very accurate description of what went on in the ouija 
board work. The dictation delivered through the board was often 
in incomplete and abbreviated sentences and these had to be filled 
out by the ladies. There was no doubt of what was meant, because 



26o CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

the abbreviated sentences were clear, though unessential words were 
often omitted. The name, title, etc., were taken up and decided. 
The book, though abundant in humor, I understand, has also a 
serious purpose, and though its evidential value is marred by Mrs. 
Hays's knowledge of Mark Twain's work, it is said to be very auto- 
biographic in respect to characteristic features in it. I had not seen 
it. The allusion to " Harpers " is very significant because the 
Harpers were the publishers of Mark Twain's works. Mrs; Chen- 
oweth knew nothing of this. 

The communications continued in the same vein, with charac- 
teristic and pertinent statements which do not require to be quoted 
at length. But a definite allusion was made to the " cracked sen- 
tences that had to be pieced together," which I mentioned just 
above. When asked what share he would have in the royalties, 
the reply was that it would be a " share of heavenly percentages," 
which was exactly the answer he had given to the same question 
through Mrs. Hays. He then gave the initial letter of the title 
to the first of the two books, though it is not stated that the initial 
was so intended. 

At the next sitting he began the automatic writing with general 
communications that were interspersed here and there with evi- 
dential touches. He spoke of the work as having been undertaken 
with a purpose to help the whole world, which was an avowed 
object in the work with the ladies, and he spoke of it in an interest- 
ing manner as *' keeping up the connection in a natural and super- 
natural way," meaning the contact with the material world. He 
showed that he was well aware of the pitfalls of fraud in any effort 
to do his work through the professional type and stated that he had 
given them a ** sign password which would give the clear idea of 
my presence." It was not exactly a password, but was a sign to 
prevent successful impersonation by others who had tried to palm 
themselves off as Mark Twain, either in their work or elsewhere. 

He then indicated, what was true enough, that one message was 
not sufficient to prove his case, and that the work which had been 
done at the other center was the kind he wished to put in the fore- 
ground, and remarked that he " sometimes found the flow of 
words very easy to start for her and then sometimes I have to wait 



MARK TWAIN 261 

a little, even when she gives me opportunity.'* Mrs. Hutchings 
recognized that this was correct. He then spontaneously corrected 
the error made previously about the initials of his real name, giving 
them now as '' S. L. C." instead of '' S. C. C." as before. I did 
not know or recall that he had a middle initial. I knew him only 
as Samuel Clemens. I had not read any of his works but two, 
and these some thirty-five years before. 

He then turned to some personal matters and gave correctly the 
name of his living daughter Clara. Among his personal state- 
ments were references to his love of the old home in Hartford and 
his choice of New York for its opportunities, speaking of Hart- 
ford as the place where he " had so much happiness and pain," al- 
luding probably to the loss of members in his family, as well as 
financial losses. He then mentioned a ring with some detail, but the 
daughter could not verify it. Some further statements were made 
about his desire to continue work through the ladies, and he then 
closed the communications with references to his interest in this 
subject when living. But while it was true that he knew some- 
thing about it, the special incident stated could not be verified by the 
daughter. He spoke of feeling the presence of her mother, his 
wife, after her death and his endeavor sometimes alone to have her 
come to him. It is not known whether this is true or not. The 
sitting ended with the name Margaret coming in the subliminal re- 
covery. It was the name of Mrs. Hutchings's deceased mother. 

At the next sitting Mark Twain began by expressing approval 
of all such efforts and made a humorous allusion to substituting 
communication with the dead for '' Catholic masses for the repose 
of souls," and then went on to give a very characteristic message : 

" I am quite serious about this, although I have always had to 
labor about being taken seriously. If I preached my own funeral 
sermon with tears rolling down my back, no one would think I was 
at all serious about it, and some one would begin to cheer for the 
funny things I was saying, but I really have the revolutionary spirit 
in my bones, and it is with me now, and I think that the work that 
I have done at home and shall continue to do will help to revolu- 
tionize some ideas of my friends, if it does no more." 



262 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

This passage, I understand, represents many actual experiences 
in his life. He was often cheered for humor when he was serious 
and he had to tell his audiences so. I never knew this and Mrs. 
Chenoweth knew less than I did about him. 

The communicator then turned to a personal matter and reit- 
erated that his wife's face was the first one he saw when he died. 
This, of course, cannot be verified, but it is a phenomenon that 
has been verified in a few other instances. 
^g There then followed a long set of communications intermingled 

with evidential hints, and characteristic throughout. The ouija 
board or " planchette " was indicated as the method of his work 
through the ladies. Then an allusion to an " old spirit who now 
and then shows such a look of age on her face drawn and worn," 
with further reference to the mother of Mrs. Hays, coincides 
with the change in Mrs. Hays's face when her mother may be pres- 
ent. What was said about the personality exactly fitted her mother 
and described her characteristic facial expression in life. 

In the subliminal Mrs. Chenoweth saw a man in white clothes. 
This exactly described the habit of Mark Twain. He used to wear 
a white suit a great deal. Mrs. Chenoweth told me that she knew 
nothing about his manner of dress. 

The ladies left Boston after the sittings which I have just sum- 
marized and further experiments were conducted in their absence. 
At the first of these sittings Mark at once recognized that the ladies 
were not present, a fact not normally known by Mrs. Chenoweth, 
and after getting adjusted remarked how "good a receiver the little 
lady was," evidently referring to Mrs. Hays. This was correct, 
as the books will show, though it may be doubted if she could do 
systematic work of the evidential type as well. At an earlier sit- 
ting, as well as at a sitting with Mrs. Hays, I had asked Mark to 
give me the name of the personality who had preceded him in his 
work with the ladies. I had Patience Worth in mind, but I gave 
no hint at these sittings with Mrs. Chenoweth of what I specifically 
wanted. I did not know that Mark had been preceded by others 
as well as Patience Worth. He immediately referred in the pres- 
ent sitting to this request of mine and after some confusion he 
said: " Just a little patience," and paused, and then wrote " W." 



MARK TWAIN 263 

This was almost the name Patience Worth in an indirect and oracu- 
lar manner. The interest in it is the fact that this is the first time 
in the history of my work with Mrs. Chenoweth that the word 
'' patience " has been used in the sentence asking me to wait. It 
has always been " Just a moment," '' Just a minute," " Wait a 
moment " or *' Wait a minute," so that it looks as if " patience " 
had been used as he had used the word " mark " to identify himself 
without making it a name. But immediately following this effort 
he said the '' W " was wrong and evidently tried to give the name 
of '' Rector," getting the first three letters of it, and then in the 
confusion got '' J," which was the initial of the name of the book 
I wanted mentioned. The effort, however, ended in confusion. 
After a subliminal interval the automatic writing tried it again and 
got nothing more than the " J." 

At the opening of the next sitting came the letters " Br," the first 
two letters in the title of the second volume received by the ladies, 
but it was not stated that they were so intended. 

At the next sitting Mark Twain came with oral control at the 
outset. He spelled the first three words by letters and then spoke 
the words as wholes. He closed by giving his full name and ad- 
dress with great ease : " Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Hartford, 
Connecticut." Neither Mrs. Chenoweth nor I had ever heard his 
middle name. I knew the rest. But the chief significance lies in 
the ease with which proper names came in this instance of oral con- 
trol. It suggests that, if we could eliminate the pictographic process 
usual with Mrs. Chenoweth, we might use clairaudience more ef- 
fectively in getting proper names. It remains to prove this possi- 
bility in practice. 

At the next sitting another communicator came and it was sev- 
eral sittings before I w^as able to get his name and identity estab- 
lished. It was Washington Irving. He claimed to have helped 
Mark Twain in his work with the two ladies. But there is no 
evidence of it in the record of the material for the two books. But 
on several occasions a friend was present who called for Wash- 
ington Irving and he purported to communicate. As a cross ref- 
erence this is not strong. But apart from this there was some 
evidence, not at all striking, that Washington Irving was helping 



264 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

in the work with Mrs. Chenoweth. Whoever it was certainly knew 
about the facts more or less. 

He referred to something begun and discarded, which I learned 
to be true, and then to the trance, which was incorrect. He then 
referred to Robert Ingersoll and indicated that he had been present 
at a sitting, but did not say that he had communicated. Inquiry 
showed that a few days before the ladies started for Boston, they 
had a sitting in Columbia, Mo., and on a question being asked about 
him were told through the ouija board that he was present and had 
come out better than Henry Ward Beecher. As Mr. Beecher was 
a communicator here a few sittings earlier, this association of the 
names has some coincidental value, all the more when we know 
that Beecher and Ingersoll were personal friends, a fact not known 
to Mrs. Chenoweth. A pertinent allusion was made to religion 
in connection with him and a correct description of his facial ap- 
pearance, but Mrs. Chenoweth knew enough of Ingersoll's connec- 
tions and appearance from pictures to deprive the facts of evidential 
importance. In the passage about religion a comparison of the 
different sects to the rainbow induced me to inquire of his biog- 
rapher whether he had ever used this simile in his lectures or writ- 
ings. The reply brought out the fact that his biographer knew 
of three separate instances in which he had used the simile, but 
not in connection with religion. Mrs. Chenoweth has never read 
any work or lecture by him and does not like his views, thinking 
they were too negative. 

Mark Twain followed with some communications, but they were 
not evidential enough to find a place in this summary. 

Washington Irving apparently came again the next day and 
possibly tried to get his name through, for George Pelham was 
referred to as apparently helping him. The interesting thing is 
that George Pelham's real name was given by the communicator 
whom I suppose to be Washington Irving, as has been done by 
other strangers who would not naturally know that the pseudonym 
of Pelham was the regular one employed. An effort was then 
apparently made to tell me where I had gotten the password before. 
But it is not clear enough for me to be sure of it Two or three 



MARK TWAIN 265 

coincidences suggest it, but an allusion to a phantom rather tends 
to nullify the hypothesis. 

The next day Washington Irving evidently came again, but he 
did not get anything through that can be clearly described as evi- 
dence either of identity or of any special incidents in the work of 
Mark Twain. The capital letter '* C " and then '' Ch " which came 
were not intelligible at the time, but probably refer to Charles 
Dickens, who reported later. 

The next day Mark Twain got the name of Washington Irving 
through and cleared up the perplexity of previous sittings in that 
respect. *' Travels Abroad " were mentioned evidently in an at- 
tempt to mention " A Tramp Abroad " or " Innocents Abroad." 
When Washington Irving came himself he finally got the name of 
Rip Van Winkle through. Mrs. Chenoweth did not know^ or recall 
who created Rip, and associated him only with Joseph Jefferson, 
who played him. She might have heard about it and forgotten 
it. She had, however, never read it or any other work of Wash- 
ington Irving, though she knew that he had written ^' Bracebridge 
Hall." 

At the next sitting Charles Dickens was mentioned in the sub- 
liminal entrance into the trance and then followed automatic writing 
by Washington Irving. Nothing was given to prove his own iden- 
tity except a casual allusion to John Jacob Astor, saying that he, 
Washington Irving, was present when Mr. Astor communicated 
with his wife, and then an allusion to the older John Jacob Astor. 
There was no hint of his presence when the John Jacob Astor, who 
went down on the Titanic, communicated with his wife, which was 
several years ago. But I turned to the " Life of Washington Irv- 
ing " and found that he had been intimately acquainted with the elder 
John Jacob Astor, a fact about which Mrs. Chenoweth knew nothing. 
But Washington Irving was not present to prove his identity. He 
was explaining the object of Mark Twain's work, and he well sum- 
marized it in the statement that a group of literary spirits had felt 
that it was time to abandon rappings and knocking furniture about 
and to give some mental phenomena which might more effectually 
prove to the world what could be done by spirit communication. 



266 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

He characterized Mark Twain's object and work in an excellent 
manner and it is impossible to give a complete conception of it 
without reading the detailed record. He continued this subject 
in the next sitting --and discussed Charles Dickens and Shakespeare, 
indicating that their work had been influenced by transcendental 
agencies, but denying that his own work and that of Mark Twain 
when living were so affected. 

At the next sitting Mark Twain came, announcing his presence 
by his real name, Samuel L. Clemens, and then remarked what is 
probably true, that, with the ladies he was Mark Twain and with 
Mrs. Chenoweth he was Mr. Clemens. He had difficulty saying 
what he wished, but assumed oral control again after it had broken 
down once and mentioned in a peculiar way the title of the most 
of the books he had written. He gave them in the form of a story 
in which the heroes of them played a part. 

The next day Charles Dickens came and indicated that he had 
taken part in the work with the ladies, but if this be true it was as 
a silent partner. There is no trace of his presence there. He ad- 
mitted that he had tried to finish " The Mystery of Edwin Drood " 
after his death and told where he had done so. After some diffi- 
culty I found that this was true in detail. Though Mrs. Cheno- 
weth was very fond of his works and had read many of them, and 
knew that he had left an unfinished novel, she refused to read it 
and had never heard of any attempt to finish it after his death. 
But there was no evidence of his personal identity that I could treat 
as probably supernormal, except that Mrs. Chenoweth, just before 
she came out of the trance and for some time afterward, yawned 
a great deal. This was only the second time that such a phenome- 
non had ever occurred in my work with her' and I suspected that 
Dickens was tired when he died. I went to Forster's biography of 
him and found that the symptoms of his approaching death were 
great weariness. 

At the next sitting Mark Twain made the attempt to give his pass- 
word. He failed by the direct method and Jennie P. came in with 
George Pelham to try the indirect method. She first mentioned 
the word " Tramp," which was not correct, but was the first word 
in the title to one of his books. Then the name " Susy " was given. 



MARK TWAIN 267 

which was the name of one of Mark Twain's deceased daughters. 
I did not know the fact and had to ascertain it from the living 
daughter. Then Jennie P. said : " Do you know about two 
words ; that is a compound word, which is apparently one which he 
wishes to give as the password. It is something like Open 
S e s a m e." 

Sesame was the password which he had given me in St. Louis 
and which a few days later he had given me in Toledo through Miss 
Burton, (on whom I had reported in Volume V of the " Proceed- 
ings.") In her case I got it written in letters of fire, so to speak, 
in the air. She was in a trance and I was the only person who 
could read it, which I did not do aloud. It was in pitch darkness. 
I mention it only because of its relation to the present cross-ref- 
erence. It came spontaneously in Toledo and without my asking 
for it and without any possible knowledge of Miss Burton that I 
had been in communication with Mark Twain. Mrs. Chenoweth 
was equally ignorant normally of the facts. 

Before the trance came on at the next sitting I happened to be 
talking to Mrs. Chenoweth about the unethical action of falling 
in love with married people or taking liberty with the moral law 
generally in such matters, and mentioned Petrarch and Laura, and 
Abelard and Heloise, thinking of Mark Twain and his comments 
on the latter two in " Innocents Abroad," but being very careful 
not to mention Mark Twain in my remarks. Immediately on his 
beginning the automatic writing, Mark Twain referred to the sub- 
ject and spoke of me as a good defender of his belief and referred 
to the case of Abelard and Heloi'se by name, saying that he did not 
mean Petrarch and Laura. I asked where he had mentioned it 
and after some difficulty and mentioning first " Travels Abroad," 
he got the correct title of " Innocents Abroad." On inquiry I 
learned that Mrs. Chenoweth had never read any of Mark Twain's 
works and had not seen '* Innocents Abroad," and did not know 
that Mark Twain had ever referred to Abelard and Heloise. She, 
as a child, had heard her parents reading " Roughing It," but was 
too young to understand the humor of it. 

At the next sitting Mr. Myers opened the communications with 
some general remarks, saying that the oral work would be stopped 



268 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

for a time and then be the next step in the development of Mrs. 
Chenoweth's work. He then made some evidential statements 
about Sir Oliver Lodge's family and his own. They are not rele- 
vant to the present matter. Then he was followed by Mark Twain, 
who referred to Mr. Beecher and Dr. Funk relevantly, and made 
some statements about smoking which repeated more or less what 
he had mentioned long before in a message. But he got through 
nothing else, though I suspected that he was trying to give the 
name of the book, which I wanted. 

At the next sitting another communicator, who did not reveal 
his identity, referred to the Harpers as publishers of his books, and 
made a very pertinent observation about their character as pub- 
lishers. He then mentioned Mr. Howells, who was an intimate 
friend of Mark Twain, saying that he might have chosen him to 
deliver the message, but that trained minds would so influence the 
work as to make it lose all personal distinctiveness, and that he had 
chosen the ladies because they would affect it less. This was a 
correct conception of the problem and an admission that the sub- 
conscious or normal consciousness can deprive a message of its 
individuality. After indicating, perhaps in jest, a possible title 
for another book by Mark Twain, the communicator began the 
effort to give the name of the book I wanted. I got '' Jo," which 
was incorrect, and then " Jul," which was also incorrect. It was 
the Fourth of July and fire-crackers were being shot off outside, 
so that noise disturbed the sitting. Finally " Jim " and ** Jerry " 
were given, both wrong, but found later to have a relevance which 
at the time I did not recognize. Then the oral control came and I 
got " Jack," *' Jas," and then " Ja," when Mrs. Chenoweth recovered 
normal consciousness and said she kept hearing *' Jappy." As 
" Jap " was the name I wanted I thought this wrong, but I later 
learned it was especially relevant and in fact correct. 

At the next sitting, after some general communications which 
were quite characteristic, the attempt to give the name of the book 
was resumed. I got " Jack " again, and " Jasper," both of which 
I thought were wrong, and then " Jap " followed by " n," which is 
the last letter in the second part of the name. 

I afterward learned from Mrs. Hutchings that incidents were 



MARK TWAIN 269 

much more evidential than I had supposed. " James Jasper Her- 
ron " was the name of the character who gave the name '* Jap 
Herron " to the book. "Jacky " was the name of the father, and 
Jasper had been called " Jappy " or '' Jappie " by one of the char- 
acters in the book. I had known nothing save that " Jap Herron " 
was the title of the book to be published. 

An interval of two weeks followed, during which Professor 
Muensterberg occupied the time, appearing suddenly and without 
suggestion on my part. It was apparently a part of a scheme of 
the controls to have him communicate at a certain crisis of present 
events and his own conversion to reason in regard to the war. At 
the end of this time Mark Twain took his place. As soon as he 
got control he took up the matter of cross-reference and compared 
his position in it to the Colossus of Rhodes requiring that he should 
have a foot at each place of communication while his head was in 
the clouds watching events beneath. The comparison was not 
natural for Mrs. Chenoweth, though I cannot make it specially evi- 
dential. I gave him a statement to report in St. Louis through the 
ladies, asking him to say that I was a cabbage head. I employed 
this phrase for a double reason. First I wanted to see the reaction 
and secondly I wanted to see what it might be possible to say about 
it at the other end of the line. I knew it would be a rude message 
to deliver, but it was one that was calculated to appeal to his sense 
of humor, and it did. His reply at once was : " How do you 
expect me to be so blunt. That message shows no consideration 
for cabbages." This answer could not be surpassed for humor 
and is Mark Twain to the core. Mrs. Chenoweth is not capable 
of it. She never indulges in humor, though she enjoys it when 
presented. ■*■ 

1 Circumstances which cannot be explained here, the matter being too per- 
sonal, have prevented my getting the cross reference in this instance. The 
experiment could not be made as I desired. 

On the evening of January 26th, 1918, I had a sitting with Miss Burton, 800 
miles from New York. Without any hint of what I wanted, not mentioning a 
name or asking a question, I received three cross-references. Among them was 
the word cabbage given several times and accompanied by the word mark. 
These were written in the air in letters of fire. The seance was held in pitch 
darkness. The words were purposely not recognized until written several 
times, as I wanted to avoid mistake in reading them. When I read them aloud, 
three raps signifying that I was correct were given. 



270 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

At the next sitting the attempt was renewed to get the name 
" Jap Herron " after some general communications by a friend 
who came to help in this very work. I got *' Jap " and " Jappy " 
and then " He," but no more at this sitting. In the midst of this 
I got " C " and " CL," which were a part of his name, but spon- 
taneously denied as incorrect. " B " came, which was the initial 
of the name of the second book, *' Brent Roberts," but was spon- 
taneously said to be incorrect, which it was for the book he was 
trying to name, but correct for what I also wanted. Two other 
letters came which are not clearly conjecturable. 

Only occasionally had Mark Twain tried to identify himself to 
the remaining member of the family, already mentioned. He had 
mentioned a ring which the daughter could not recognize and as the 
situation made the incident rather equivocal, I resolved to broach 
the subject when I could and see if my conjecture about it was 
correct. The response was immediate and my supposition was 
supported. 

In the original statement the name of the daughter Clara was 
given and in a few minutes allusion made to " Mamma's ring," 
which was said to have been given to the daughter, worn a while, 
put aside and then to have been in the possession of the communi- 
cator himself. The context shows unmistakably that the most 
natural interpretation was as I have stated it. But on the denial 
of the daughter that it had any meaning for her I put the matter 
before the communicator to have it cleared up, but without hinting 
at what I suspected and without telling anything more than that 
it had no significance to the daughter. The communicator then 
said that his wife was helping him in that message and that he was 
referring to her mother and his wife, her . daughter. As Mark 
Twain's living daughter would not reply to inquiries I appealed to 
Mr. Bigelow Paine and he ascertained from the living sister of 
Mrs. Clemens, Mark Twain's wife, that Mrs. Clemens's mother had 
a beautiful emerald and diamond ring which she specially be- 
queathed on her death-bed to Mrs. Clemens, who constantly wore 
it and for some reason not known it disappeared, the sitter think- 
ing that it was lost. The incident thus turned out to be true sub- 
stantially. 



MARK TWAIN 271 

However, I took occasion to ask what the attitude of his daugh- 
ter was toward the subject, just to see the reaction. At first she 
had shown cordial willingness to answer questions, but finding 
the incidents trivial she had revolted against the matter and re- 
quested me not to communicate with her about it again. I had 
said nothing of this to the psychic either in or out of the trance, 
and hence I wanted to see what reaction I would get by asking 
what her attitude toward the subject was. In general the reply 
was correct, as I could easily see from her two attitudes as revealed 
to me. But as she did not reply to further inquiries I cannot be 
sure of details. Mark Twain, however, evidently saw the situa- 
tion and resolved to press upon her some evidence of his identity. 
He mentioned her by name in one sitting and inquiry of Mrs. Chen- 
oweth showed that she not only did not know that there was such 
a person but that she did not know that Mark Twain had any 
children at all. In a desperate effort to impress her in the last 
sitting he gave the following message: 

"It is to speak now of some foot trouble — that is, some little difficulty, 
which was his in the last years of his life when he could not walk as much 
or as well as he used to, and it was a source of annoyance to him. It was 
not simply growing old, but something had happened to his foot which made 
it necessary to be more careful in walking and in the choice of shoes, and 
as he had always been a great walker, very active and interested in all 
things out of doors, it was more or less of a cross to him. 

" That is one thing he wishes to speak of, and another is a small article, 
a watch charm, and it had some special reference to some group or body of 
people. It seems like a charm which may have been a symbol of some 
order, but he did not use it all the time, and as he shows it here to-day, it 
seems like a gift which he now and again looked at and felt some pleasure 
in the possession of." 

The first incident about the foot difficulty seems quite clear. The 
daughter failed to reply to my inquiries to say whether it was either 
true or false, but inquiry of his biographer, Mr. Albert Bigelow 
Paine, brought the information that it had at least a modicum of 
truth. It is not exactly stated. Mark Twain always had tender 
feet that made it important to be careful in the choice of footwear. 
It was not due to old age, but, so far as Mr. Paine knows, it gave 
no special trouble near the end of his life, though he did not walk 



272 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

much during the last year, so that the record is not quite accurate 
at this point, and yet near enough to be significant. 

Mr. Paine, however, writes that Mark Twain did have a watch 
charm as described, which was presented to him by the Yale Greek 
Society. Whether he took the emotional interest in it mentioned 
is not verifiable. 

He then took up the effort of completing the name of the book I 
wanted and succeeded in getting Jap Herron through the subliminal, 
after failing by the direct method. The experiments stopped at 
this point and there was no opportunity to try that of Brent Rob- 
erts and I had to remain content with the previous hints of it that 
came involuntarily as I thought at the time. But as Brent Roberts 
was one of the minor characters in Jap Herron its association with 
the efifort to get the name of Jap was very natural. 

This cross-reference was tried and was more or less successful 
with another psychic, Mrs. Salter, who has not been mentioned since 
the study of the Thompson-Gifford case. While I was carrying 
on my experiments in Boston with Mrs. Hays and Mrs. Hutchings, 
I wrote my secretary. Miss Tubby, in New York, whom I did not 
inform of my work in Boston, to arrange for sittings with Mrs. 
Salter. I mentioned no names even to my secretary and she was 
as ignorant as the psychic of the persons whom I wished to see Mrs. 
Salter. Again they were taken separately without introduction. 
Miss Tubby not knowing Mrs. Hays at any time until after the sit- 
tings, and not knowing that Mrs. Hutchings was to have any sitting 
until that of Mrs. Hays was finished. As there was but a short 
sitting for each, the results were not so striking for our purposes 
as those of Mrs. Chenoweth. The best evidence for the super- 
normal in these sittings was irrelevant to the Mark Twain incidents, 
but in the course of them the initials of several persons connected 
with the case were given and the word " Jap " came. Correct 
names of places were given connected with both the story and the 
home of the ladies. While the initials given were often intelligible, 
they were not as evidential as is desirable. But the name " Jap " 
was an unmistakable hit of some interest. Considering that this 
immediately followed what occurred in Boston, though it was frag- 
mentary and did more to prove the difficulty of communicating 



MARK TWAIN 273 

than anything else, the coincidences must be accorded some weight, 
though taken alone their meagerness would deprive them of scien- 
tific value. 

It will be interesting to find some incidents from Mark Twain 
long before the experiments were made to test his relation to Jap 
Herron. He came spontaneously to Mrs. Chenoweth in February, 
1913, and when the subconscious of Mrs. Chenoweth asked me if 
I knew any one by the name of Mark, I replied that I did, not 
thinking of Mark Twain, but Mark Hanna whom I might expect 
to be mentioned by a recently deceased friend of my own. When 
the automatic writing began the following came. 

I ought to tell you first who I am for fear you might be under 
the impression that you are talking to Saint Mark, or some 
other great ones. I am S. C. and think it about time I dropped 
the nom de plume which gave me a following; namely, Mark 
Twain. 

(Thank you. I know.) 

I see so little to make me better comprehend what the meaning 
of it all is that I am not in the least tempted to mount a pulpit and 
preach to the lost. I only know that I am saved and that I have 
a few choice friends along with me and we are not worrying about 
the state of the rest of the world. It is most wonderful to be able 
to see so much at once. That is the one thing that stands out more 
clearly to me. It seems as if we had gained a double capacity to 
see. Do you understand what I mean by seeing? 

(No, not exactly. Explain a little.) 

Two worlds instead of one. We see double, in other words, and 
no one seems intoxicated either. 

(Does the old physical world look as it did before passing?) 

Sometimes it looks pretty much the same. It depends on where 
you float. Wall street looks very much like — shall I say what 
I think — (Yes) Inferno. It seems to have no saving grace as 
an atmosphere about it, but it always does look like that to a man 
who is not on the inside. I find a smoky atmosphere plenty good 
enough for me. 

I think I ought to file a protest against some of the malevolent 



274 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

criticisms that have been made in my absence. Do you know how 
I have been hashed up since I died? 

(No, I do not. I suppose I shall be done up when I get over 
there.) 

So we are in the same boat. Let's take a pipe and smoke away 
our trouble. 

(What made you choose the simile of a pipe?) 

Nothing particular, only because I knew you would not smoke 
and I would do it all myself. You may learn when you get over 
here. You never can tell how soon a thing like a great truth may 
dawn upon a poor benighted man. 

(Well, I hope it will not be one kind of smoking.) 

I have not yet seen the sulphur pit, but I presume that there is 
one. Most of us would be glad of a chance to toss an enemy in on 
the sly, but so far I have restrained my desire and made a great 
effort to keep the peace and not to mar the joy of heaven. 

The communicator then, after some further statements, went on 
to mention Mr. Howells, who had been his friend, and spoke of 
their relation to each other in rather affectionate tones and then 
tried to mention some incidents in proof of personal identity, but 
was not successful. The passage quoted above, however, is char- 
acteristic of Mark Twain in its humoresque features and it is given 
for that reason rather than for the forcefulness of its evidence, 
though it has this characteristic: for readers must remember that 
at this time Mrs. Chenoweth had not read a line of Mark Twain's 
I writings. She merely knew that he was an American humorist. 
iHis allusion to smoking will be understood by readers who knew 
his habits in that respect, and not known to Mrs. Chenoweth. He 
was an inveterate smoker and, knowing that, I put my question as 
I did to see the reaction. It was characteristic and humorous 
enough. He used to say when living as reported of him, that he 
never smoked except when he was not asleep. 

The discussion of this topic need not be detailed. The problem 
is not the general one of spiritistic explanation, but the connection 
between the experiments with Mrs. Chenoweth and the work of 
Mrs. Hutchings and Mrs. Hays. The introduction showed that 



MARK TWAIN 275 

the evidence for the presence of Mark Twain in the work of the 
two ladies would not be accepted by the scientific students of psy- 
chology. They might be wrong in saying that Mark Twain was 
or is not the author of the volumes claimed, but their skepticism 
would have the defence that Mrs. Hays's subconscious memory 
might be adequate to the production of the result assuming that 
her moderate reading of Mark Twain might endow it with the 
material for the work. The believer would certainly have to con- 
tend and to prove that this reading and desire on her part for 
Mark Twain to communicate had not impressed the subliminal 
with the subject matter for both reproduction and fabrication of 
the results. The skeptic would undoubtedly have the advantage 
in the argument from this point of view, and it was this fact which 
made my experiments so necessary for the purpose of limiting the 
claims of destructive criticism. 

It is true that there may be incidents and general characteristics 
in the books that transcend any knowledge conveyed by Mrs. Hays's 
reading. Only a patient comparison of her work with that of the 
works of Mark Twain while he was living would discover any such 
evidence of his independent influence, and even then this view would 
represent largely, perhaps, the opining of the student skilled in the 
detection of fine points of internal criticism. But we should always 
be without a criterion of the limitations of Mrs. Hays's subcon- 
scious mind. That of Mrs. Hutchings can be excluded because 
she had not read Mark Twain until after he had done much of his 
work through the ouija board. But the mind of Mrs. Hays can- 
not thus be exempt from suspicion. Her reading and desires offer 
the skeptic all the leverage he wishes for an excuse against foreign 
intelligence and in favor of any amount of credulity about the 
subliminal. But he has to be refuted. 

I have called attention to one consideration which this argument 
of subconscious reproduction and fabrication ignores. It is the 
fact that neither lady alone could move the ouija board and that 
it would move only when each had a hand on it at the same time. 
This increases the improbabilities that the two subliminals would 
act harmoniously toward a given result in any other sense than as 
passive media for the influence of outside intelligence. But the 



276 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

advocate of subconscious origin must face and solve this problem 
evidentially prior to his assertion of his own hypothesis. Nor will 
it suffice to say that this harmonious action is conceivable. That 
may be true. What we must have is evidence that it is a fact and 
it will not be easy to produce any evidence for it, perhaps not any 
easier than for spirits. I shall not dwell on this, however. It is a 
vantage ground to which we may return when we require. 

I said that the primary problem was not regarding the existence 
of spirits in the work of Mrs. Chenoweth. I have said many times 
that I regard this as proved. Here we are concerned with the 
question whether the books by Mrs. Hutchings and Mrs. Hays have 
the same explanation as the work done through Mrs. Chenoweth. 
Whether spirits are the first thing to consider is a distinct question, 
and we have first to decide whether the same explanation applies 
to both results. If you insist that secondary personality or sub- 
conscious memories explain the work of the two ladies you cannot 
apply that hypothesis to the work of Mrs. Chenoweth. If you 
account for Mrs. Chenoweth's work by telepathy you cannot apply 
that to the work of the two ladies, Mrs. Hutchings and Mrs. Hays. 
Neither one of these hypotheses covers the ground. Besides, you 
would find that telepathy does not explain all of the facts in the 
Chenoweth records, so that you have an independent difficulty in 
those alone. In any case you have to reject both secondary per- 
sonality and telepathy from the explanation of the whole. You 
cannot combine them for the whole, for telepathy will not explain 
all of the records in the work of Mrs. Chenoweth. You might 
speciously say secondary personality in the work of the two ladies 
and telepathy in that of Mrs. Chenoweth, but you would be con- 
fronted by the fact that telepathy will not explain the latter and 
that secondary personality may have its limitations in certain char- 
acteristics and details of the books. Consequently, if you are seek- 
ing a single hypothesis to cover the ground you must find it in 
normal sources; namely, in conscious fraud on the part of the 
ladies and a similar hypothesis in regard to my own work with Mrs. 
Chenoweth. I do not object to this theory. I shall only demand 
scientific evidence for it. The slightest investigation into the char- 
acter and work of the ladies will dispel illusions about their relation 



MARK TWAIN 277 

to it, and though I may not be able to vindicate myself from suspi- 
cion, I am open to investigation. 

The fact is that there is only one hypothesis that covers the 
ground without complications, and that is the spiritistic. The in- 
fluence of Mark Twain would explain the work of the ladies, 
whether you have the proof of it or not. The communication of 
Mark Twain is the only explanation of the work of Mrs. Cheno- 
weth. You cannot import telepathy, inference, and suggestion 
into it to account for the whole of it, and w^hatever explains it will 
explain the work of Mrs. Hutchings and Mrs. Hays. There is one 
hypothesis that explains both, and so far as I can see only one 
hypothesis explains both sets of phenomena consistently. That is 
the spiritistic and the one that has all the superficial claims to ap- 
plication. There should be no doubt in any intelligent mind that 
the spiritistic explanation is the more natural one, and that all sorts 
of devices would have to be accepted to evade the application of 
it. I shall not further summarize the evidence for this conclusion. 
It has been vindicated in so many other cases that it requires little 
further evidence to sustain it and I take it for granted in the nature 
of the phenomena. 

The important thing Is the light which it throws on cases which 
would otherwise be referred to secondary personality. The value 
of cross-reference for establishing the nature of such cases is un- 
mistakably reinforced by the present one. It adds one more in- 
stance to the class which might have been doubtful before. It 
confirms again what was supported in the case of Doris Fischer, 
though not as an instance of multiple personality, but as one which 
the psychiatrist and psychologist would refer to dissociation. 
Without the experiments in cross-reference, the work of Mrs. Hays 
and Mrs. Hutchings would be referred to secondary personality 
and to this explanation only. But we cannot suppose that the work 
of Mrs. Chenoweth has that explanation, because of the conditions 
under which the results were obtained. The facts sustain the hy- 
pothesis for the work of the ladies which applies to that of Mrs. 
Chenoweth and the confident a priori speculations of the psychol- 
ogist must be challenged. The main lesson is that we begin a gen- 
eralization which may alter the judgment in regard to all such 



278 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

phenomena. Secondary personality can no longer be dismissed 
as requiring no further investigation and we cannot be allowed 
entire freedom in theories of brain cells as sufficient to account for 
the facts, though they are always complicated with any other causes. 
Psychology will have to revise either its theories or its facts. At 
any rate a doubt is established about the dogmatism of the psy- 
chiatrist and the student of normal psychology. The ramifications 
of the conclusion will prove as great as in the Doris Fischer case, 
to say nothing of the possibly extended influence of discarnate 
agencies on the living where they care to exercise it. 

One warning, however, I must issue against all critics of the 
spiritistic theory. In this instance, as in all others where I defend 
it, I am not unconscious of the objections which these critics will 
bring in regard to the characteristic nature of the messages. There 
is a prevailing belief that a man's personality or personal charac- 
teristics should be clearly reflected in the communications. This 
assumption is held alike by lay believers and scientific critics, more 
frequently by the latter. I usually find laymen more sensible about 
this matter than the scientific man. But at least for a chance to 
criticize, the skeptic seizes on uncharacteristic incidents or expres- 
sions for disqualifying the evidence. But if he supposes that I do 
not concede such features in the record when advocating the spir- 
itistic hypothesis, he very much mistakes my position. I can excuse 
the illusion in laymen, but not in scientific minds. No doubt we 
have, and perhaps must have, something characteristic of the 
communicator, if only in the veridical character of the incidents 
told in proof of personal identity, but tricks of language and style 
need not be present at all. The skeptic who assumes that the lack 
of characteristic phrase and style is against the spiritistic interpre- 
tation does not know his business. The fundamental assumption 
of the theory is that the discarnate personality is subject to the 
limitations and modifying influence of the medium through whom 
he gets expression. And there is more than this. He also is sub- 
ject to the influence of other minds than that of the psychic. Not 
only must all messages pass through the mind of the medium and 
be subjected to the coloring effect of her organic habits of thought 
and language, but they must also often pass through or be affected 



MARK TWAIN 279 

by the mind of the control, and in some instances by two or three 
other minds acting as helpers or intermediaries. The result on 
which we base our conclusion is a compound, an interfusion of two 
or three, or even half a dozen minds. No critic should approach 
the subject without recognizing that it is this that he has to refute 
and that he cannot do it by remarking that messages are " un- 
characteristic.'' They are always this to a certain extent and rarely 
reflect the personality of the communicator in its purity. It should 
not be expected. Only an ignorant person would assume its purity, 
after investigating the facts. 

It will be found that the subconscious of Mrs. Hays affected the 
contents of the book and that the subconscious of Mrs. Chenoweth 
affected the contents of Mark Twain's messages. This is unavoid- 
able. Several minds are probably involved in both products and 
an expert student of the phenomena would easily discover this 
interfusion of personality in the result. It is the prominent evi- 
dence in the case that escapes explanation by the subconscious alone, 
even though it may be colored by that influence. The same law 
is discoverable in the language and thought of any normal writer 
who is appropriating style and thought of his past reading. Hence 
I shall make the critic a present of any objections based upon the im- 
purity of the communications. The spiritistic hypothesis is based 
upon the incidents which transcend explanation by the mind of the 
medium alone, even though the result is highly colored by it. 

I must warn readers, however, against assuming that the story 
itself has anything to do with the conclusion here adopted. I do 
not care whether it is a good or a poor story, whether it has literary 
merits or not, whether readers of it can detect Mark Twain in it or 
not. It is probable that some who are very familiar with the man, 
his style and habits of thought, and perhaps scenes of his boyhood, 
may find traces of the man, but the circumstances prevent us from 
attaching any special weight to these. My own knowledge of 
Mark Twain as a writer is too small to pronounce judgment on 
these points and I should regard them merely as corroborative and 
secondary evidence if I found them. But the telling facts for any 
hypothesis must be the cross-references which unmistakably asso- 
ciate him with the books. It is in Mrs. Hutchings's introduction 



y 



280 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

to the story that we find psychological traces of work which only 
trained psychic researchers would recognize, and then the cross- 
references add the rest. The one thing that must dawn on us is 
the repeated evidence that cases which superficially show no traces 
of supernormal influences yet yield to experiment proving that 
superficial indications cannot be trusted and w^e may have to allow 
for supplementary influences from another w^orld where wx least 
suspect them. 

Authorities differ in regard to the vraisemblance of the story to 
Mark Twain. His biographer, while conceding that the Introduc- 
tion contains incidents like Mark Tw-ain and some unlike him, sees 
absolutely nothing in the story of Jap Herron that would remind 
him of Mark Twain. The reviewer in the " New York Times " finds 
some things like Mark Twain, but regards the story itself as in- 
ferior to his work. It is probable that people would differ widely 
on these points, sometimes according to bias one way or the other 
about the alleged origin of the story, but more frequently because 
of the unavoidable differences of conception which people have of 
any man whatever. But, as remarked above, this makes no differ- 
ence to the hypothesis defended here. We are neither asserting 
that the story is like Mark Tw^ain nor assuming these conditions in 
the communications that would make it probable that his char- 
acteristics would be reflected in the story. In the contrary, we 
assume that the story would be greatly influenced in the transmis- 
sion by the subconscious of the medium and also by the mind of 
the control and of any other helpers in the process of transmission. 
It might actually lose all the specific features by which we should 
recognize him. Through Mrs. Chenoweth he said he simply had 
to think and that his thoughts had to be interpreted by the medium. 
This process of interpretation would greatly alter any message 
transmitted, and the man who does not allow^ for this aspect of the 
hypothesis is not discussing the problem w^e have before us, but 
some a priori product of the imagination wath which w-e are not 
concerned. We may be wrong, but the hypothesis here advanced 
is the one we ask to be met, and that is that the subconscious of 
the medium is an important factor in the results, and that the evi- 
dence from cross-reference fits in with this, even to the extent of 



MARK TWAIN 



281 



supposing that the stimulus may be wholly spiritistic while the con- 
tents may be wholly subliminal. We have no proof that this is 
strictly true in this special case, but the fact that no trace of Mark 
Twain may be visible to most readers, or even all of them, does 
not affect the hypothesis here advanced. It would affect it if the 
process of communication were as simple and direct as the ex- 
pectant reader assumes, though in normal life a story, unless re- 
ported verbatim, will undergo modification when transmitted 
through another mind. With a symbolic or a new method of trans- 
mission or communication, and a number of minds to reckon with 
in the process, wo. may little expect to find clear characteristics of 
the person alleged to be the chief communicator, while evidence 
that cross-reference supplies may force us to admit the origin of 
the facts, though we have to discount their purity because of the 
complex conditions affecting their communication. This is fully 
illustrated in the Doris Fischer case. Personal characteristics of 
the communicator, while they added to the proof, did not deter- 
mine it, because cross-reference makes us independent of that aspect 
of the problem. Hence the important thing here is the repetition 
of cases which tend to show that phenomena otherwise assignable 
to secondary personality may be proved to have a supernormal or- 
igin by the method of cross-reference. 



\ 



CHAPTER XVII 
DR. ISAAC K. FUNK 

DR. FUNK was well enough known to make it possible 
for the public and scientific men to propose certain ob- 
jections to alleged communications from him. As we 
have to discount anything which the medium certainly may have 
known about an alleged communicator, the person who is well- 
known pays the penalty of skepticism regarding his efforts to prove 
his identity. Dr. Funk was well-known to the American public 
as a publisher and this exposes any alleged efforts on his part to 
communicate to objections based either upon fraud or casual knowl- 
edge on the part of the psychic. But it was not his reputation as 
a publisher that constitutes the greatest difficulty about alleged com- 
municators. Mediums can hardly keep themselves informed about 
every well-known publisher or professional man. It would be a 
waste of time and money to do so. Their custom, so far as it has 
been practised at all and that is not one-hundredth as much as 
Philistines suppose and assert, has been to get information about 
persons interested in the subject and likely to appear as investi- 
gators with some degree of constancy. And they have been so 
limited in their power to get information, even in such cases, that 
the practice of it had to be given up as not paying for itself. Gos- 
sip was a more fruitful source of information than organized 
efforts. 

Now Dr. Funk happened to be known all over the country as 
interested in the subject and as experimenting whenever he could. 
So he was exposed more than the average person to any predatory 
instances alleged of mediumistic detectives, and we have to allow 
for the objections of the Philistine in this respect. He was the 
author of two books on the subject, " The Widow's Mite " and 
" The Psychic Riddle,'' both rather widely read, and probably fa- 
miliar to many mediums interested in learning what he had to say. 

282 



DR. ISAAC K. FUNK 283 

Mrs. Chenoweth, whose work we shall quote here, had not read or 
seen either one of them, though knowing he wrote the first one. She 
knew of Dr. Funk's interest in the subject, and the consequence is 
that, if she had been so minded, she could have ascertained much 
about the man to use in her work. But in her trance nothing came 
that can be accounted for by reference to " The Widow's Mite," ex- 
cept the name of Mr. Beecher connected with it and that not cer- 
tainly, and neither work, as remarked, had been seen by her. The 
facts which I shall quote here will not be explicable by referring 
them to any such source. Whatever objections are made must be 
based on the liabilities of casual knowledge or deliberate effort to ac- 
quire the desired information, as I had no means of giving the facts 
pertinence to any friend of his present as a sitter except myself, and 
I was too well known to the psychic to plead cogency on the score of 
relevancy to myself. But there is always the reply to skeptics at this 
point, that Mrs. Chenoweth has so constantly succeeded under test 
conditions that the skeptic has no vantage ground on which to rest 
and it would be useless expense on her part to seek information con- 
sciously. Beyond that her honesty cannot be impeached, and 
though that has nothing to do with estimating evidence, it throws 
the burden of proof on the skeptic who would suggest or assert 
fraud. The facts which we shall quote wall doubly obligate such 
minds to produce evidence for their doubts. 

Dr. Funk died April 4th, 191 2, and his first appearance through 
Mrs. Chenoweth was on October 2nd, 19 12. He did not give his 
name at first, but mentioned New York and Brooklyn, and spoke 
of Brooklyn as his home, a fact not known by the psychic, though 
she did know his relation to New York. Soon afterward he gave 
his initials. This assured me who it was and his full name came 
later. 

Soon after giving his initials, he remarked that he had not been 
the fool or dupe that some of his associates thought and on being 
asked by me who it was that thought him so, having conjurers in 
mind, the reply was his " business associates " and I asked who 
else. To the latter question I received a remarkable answer. He 
mentioned the " Editor of ' The Sun,' " referring to the owner and 
editor, who died before himself, and said that he had found out 



284 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

that his editorial ridicule of Dr. Funk had been mistaken. The 
special pertinence of this was not known to the psychic. I pur- 
sued my question and got a reference to the '* Clergy," w^hich was 
correct enough, but not in my mind and then, after alluding to 
scientific scoffing at him, possibly known to the psychic, he said 
he had done things I would not do. This was quite correct and 
was in all probability not known by Mrs. Chenoweth. Asked to 
say what kind of phenomena he investigated, he replied " dark 
and strange and physical," meaning dark seances and physical phe- 
nomena. This was true. He had investigated much of this type 
and I none of it. Mrs. Chenoweth did not know that I had not 
done this, though she might have known that Dr. Funk did some 
of it. He then alluded spontaneously to his having got better 
material than some of his friends and indicated his difference cor- 
rectly with Dr. Hodgson, and remarked that they could both now 
afford to laugh about it. All this was correct and not known to 
the psychic. He had obtained much better material than his im- 
mediate friends and had a sharp controversy with Dr. Hodgson. 

The next week, October 7th, he reported again and began with 
some very characteristic things which one could not appreciate 
without reading the detailed record, and that is too long to quote, 
referring to his interest in certain aspects of the subject, but not 
in abnormal psychology. Then he referred to Prospect Park 
and the cemetery where he was buried. He was familiar with 
Prospect Park in Brooklyn and I learned afterward that he was 
buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, not far from Prospect 
Park. Neither Mrs. Chenoweth nor myself knew this fact. He 
then referred to having left a posthumous letter whose contents 
he was to reveal after death. This was true and absolutely un- 
known to any one but myself and his son. After a few more 
characteristic things he referred to the fact that he had been re- 
garded as a '' hot headed enthusiast," which was true, and added 
as truly that this was " far from the truth." Then came the in- 
teresting statement. V 

" I accepted much tentatively, to disarm the psychic and produce 
results, but I reasoned out the evidence calmly enough alone later." 
He then referred to the crudeness of the conjurer's " ignorance 



DR. ISAAC K. FUNK 285 

of the laws of psychology." This message represented the exact 
facts about the man, and the point is that they were quite con- 
trary to all that was believed of Dr. Funk. He was supposed to 
be the dupe of mediums and totally unacquainted with the methods 
of investigation, and to be swallowing everything that came along. 
This was an illusion, and he was quite willing for the public to 
think that he was deceived, if only he could get at the bottom of a 
case. He was w^orth a dozen conjurers in investigating most cases. 
The contrary opinion would have been all that casual information 
could have brought to Mrs. Chenoweth. 

He then referred by name to his brother and to his brother's 
son, though the manner of doing it is not strongly evidential. On 
the next day he referred in the subliminal stage of the trance at 
once to the Bible and other literature of the same type among dif- 
ferent nations, specifying the Veda as one of them. He was in- 
terested in comparative religions. Immediately he mentioned 
Luther R. Marsh and Miss Dis Debar, using V by mistake for R 
in the first name, and correctly described Mr. Marsh and his rela- 
tion to this subject, stating at least one thing not known to the 
public about him. Miss Dis Debar had been connected with Mr. 
Marsh's debacle in Spiritualism and this was well known to the 
public and might have been known to Mrs. Chenoweth, as even con- 
fessed by the subliminal, but she did not know how pertinent it 
was for Dr. Funk to mention the incident. 

When the automatic writing began he confessed that communi- 
cation was not so easy as he expected to find it and he then gave 
an excellent statement of what the process is. " Thought pro- 
duces images and unless the thought is concentrated on some par- 
ticular thing, the image quickly melts into other images, a 
kaleidoscope movement," and having difficulty in spelling the word 
*' kaleidoscope " he asked if he had spelled it phonetically. This 
last remark, or rather question, was very pertinent because of 
his great interest in phonetic spelling, a fact not known to the 
psychic, but known to me. The process of communication described 
is another version of the pictographic method and well put, having 
perfect accordance with what we know of the remote processes in 
ordinary streams of mental imagery, especially in deliria. Com- 



286 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

parison with the kaleidoscope is excellent and Mrs. Chenoweth's 
knowledge of psychology is too defective to be so accurate. What 
he said of his interest in phonetic spelling was better than the 
mere reference to it, as it represented his reasons for his interest in 
it and these reasons were not common public property, but were 
correctly stated. 

He spoke of a few converts to it and I asked who one of them 
was, thinking of Mr. Carnegie. But his answer was to " Big 
Stick," using this expression as a reference to Theodore Roosevelt 
w^hom he had converted to the need of reformed spelling. But 
this was publicly known. When I pressed him for the name I had 
in mind, he failed to give it, but made some pertinent personal 
statements about the value of getting names on which he differed 
from other investigators. His attitude on this matter was un- 
known. The passage also describes the usual method of the sitter 
about this and other explicit incidents, indicating the preference 
for spontaneously given messages, which he correctly enough said 
was the method I employed. 

He then gave me a sign which he would use elsewhere in proof 
of his identity, just after having said that proper names were al- 
ways difficult if it was important to get them, but easier when there 
was nothing to gain or lose by giving them, a fact of considerable 
truth in this work. This sign I shall not mention here. But 
suffice to say that I got it soon afterward by means of the ouija 
board through two private people who did not know it and who 
did not know that he was giving it as his sign. I carefully re- 
frained from explaining it to them. Then I got it through Miss 
Burton who, though not a private psychic, did not know anything 
about either the man or his sign, and was not told that I got it in 
my work with her. It was given along with his name and both 
written in the air in letters of fire. 

The next day, in alluding to this sign he made use of the term 
'' riddle " in referring to the problem, and asked me if it meant 
anything to me. I recognized at once the pertinence of it, and 
as fortune would have it Mrs. Chenoweth knew nothing about 
its relevance in connection with the identity of Dr. Funk, as he had 
used it in the title to one of his books. 



DR. ISAAC K. FUNK 287 

He then proceeded, as he said, to give " some memories of 
phonetic conquests " alluding to converts in reformed spelling, hav- 
ing previously alluded by the expression " the Big Stick " to Mr. 
Roosevelt. He began with the capital letter C and after some 
confusion got the name Charles. I knew what he desired, but 
kept still and did not help. After some struggle and confusion, 
he got the name Carnegie. This was correct and though it was 
not known by the psychic that Mr. Carnegie had any relation to 
Dr. Funk, it might have been known that he was interested in 
phonetic spelling. As soon as he got out the name I asked the 
communicator if Mr. Carnegie had not been asked to do some- 
thing else and the answer came promptly that he had been asked 
to endow psychic research. Dr. Funk had done this three times, 
but w^as rebuffed in it, the last time very emphatically. After ex- 
plaining what he had done and how his request had been received 
he added significantly : 

" It is so stupid to wait till a thing is assured before you give it 
sustenance. I think the uses to which rich men apply their wealth 
are subject to inquiry as to whether they are not suffering from 
hallucinations." 

While not evidential this is too true to leave unquoted. In a 
moment he again took up his own method of experiment and gave 
a characteristic message. 

Gullible was not exactly what I should have been called, but I saw noth- 
ing to be gained by spoiling the case at the start by suggestion or manner 
of disbelief. Let the spirits, if there are any, have their own way and 
take what comes and do the sifting of evidence in your own conditions. 

(Exactly.) 

I knew that I got many things passed me that I could discount, but I 
would never have gotten it if I had done as the world thought I ought to 
have done. 

(That's right.) 

God confounds us with combinations of good and ill, weak and strong, 
in every expression of His, and psychic matters are not exceptions to the 
rule. I thank God I leaned out far enough to catch the light of the dawn 
before I came into the full glory of the eternal day. 

This was exactly his method and belief about the subject, and he 
was regarded by people who neither knew him nor his methods as 



288 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

*' gullible " and deceived. He simply laughed at public opinion and 
went on with his work. 

He had raised the questions, in our conversations, of " demons " 
or evil spirits, as mentioned in the New Testament, as possibly ex- 
plaining the facts we had, and so I asked him at this point about 
the matter to see the reaction. The answer was not clear, though 
he gave an answer clear enough to what he supposed I meant by 
the query ; namely, that " mistakes were not demoniacal," and re- 
ferred to them as like crossed wires in the telephone, a conception 
which exactly represents what involuntarily occurs at times. 

He did not communicate any more until January 14th, 19 13. He 
began on that occasion with general observations, not evidential at 
first, except as they were generally characteristic, and then turned 
to this subject and its effect on the future. He said : 

There will be no mighty revolution which disintegrates and destroys the 
civilization of the Christian Era, but noiselessly as the morning dawns 
the work will awake and the sun of demonstrated truth will be high in the 
heavens, and the night of sorrow will have passed away and the won- 
drous beauty of the law of God will be revealed and understood. No 
revolution but revelation. That is my watchword now. In giving you this 
statement, I realize that I am using time which might well be given to 
the work of estabhshing my personal identity, but this also is part of my 
identity, I hope, as much as the memory of a particular collar button and 
its present location. Our friends, the critics, are amused that we busy 
ourselves in recalling Welsh Rarebits, when there are Bibles to be trans- 
lated, but we dare not descend into literary efforts or they stone us be- 
cause we cannot remember the wart on grandfather's finger. 

(Good.) 

What a contradictory jury we try our case before, and what an incon- 
sistent judge passes sentence on us, because we dare show our faces at 
a place, in fact, the only place where we can get some inkling of the 
truth. No respectable people believe in spirits, they tell you, and when 
an eminently respectable and respected man dares to show an interest, they 
at once do their best to make him the reverse of respectable. [Pause after 
word " him."] I could not think of the word although I once fathered a 
dictionary. 

In the last sentence he was referring to the word " reverse." 
The passage is a good summary of many a remark he made in con- 
versation with me. He took exactly that attitude toward the pub- 
lic as a jury in the phenomena, and knew exactly what kind of evi- 
dence was necessary and what absurd things the public wants for its 



DR. ISAAC K. FUNK 289 

satisfaction and delectation. His relation to a dictionary is too 
well known to make a point of it, although the knowledge of the 
man by Mrs. Chenoweth is so small that we may well believe that 
she does not know the fact well enough to apply it so aptly. But 
casual knowledge may have been forgotten. 

After further general observations he undertook to give some 
specific things in personal identity which could not easily be ques- 
tioned in their evidential nature. He first mentioned the Orange 
Mountains, and then described in some detail a w^ooden building 
with Corinthian columns in a small town in view of the moun- 
tains and with maple trees on the street. It was said to be a 
church without a steeple, but with a square bell tower. 

He lived the last few years of his life in a town near the Orange 
Mountains in New Jersey, but the church he attended there had no 
resemblance to the one mentioned, and no one seems to know of 
the building so minutely described. Mrs. Chenoweth knew nothing 
about his home near the mountains named. Nearly all his business 
life was spent in Brooklyn, New York. 

On the next day, January 15th, after general communications 
of no evidential value, he referred to " pictures " and " physical 
experiments " he had made. But the confusion was considerable 
for some time, as I would not help in the message, tho surmising 
what he was trying to do. He got away from the subject, and as 
the incident had never been made public, I resolved to have him 
stick to the subject and I began the matter by recalling him to it. 

(Now, were you referring to a picture that you got in one of your ex- 
periments?) Yes. (Now, who took that picture or made it for you?) 

I have been trying to write that, for I knew it would be good evidence. 

(Yes, stick to it.) 

It was quite a curio. My mother was supposed to come and I could 
not see how it was done. 

(I understand. That was the picture I had in mind. Now where and 
who was it that made it for you?) 

I want to tell that also; for, while I was not sure of the method, I had 
doubts and suspicions, but there was the result before my eyes. 

(Yes I remember.) 

You know all about that and I have more to say about it now. 

(Yes, go ahead.) 

Two who had the work in their home and the way it was produced 



290 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

seemed most open and above reproach. And yet, if it were done as sup- 
posed, the world ought to stand still at the stupendous marvel. I left the 
answer to time, for I could not answer it myself. I was not a juggler nor 
sleight of hand artist. One thing I always said was that it was light 
bright. 

(Yes, you mean that it was bright when the picture was taken?) 
Yes. (And two persons had to do with the making?) 

Yes and they had their own conditions and time and home. I went to 
them, but it was after I was known to be interested in these matters. 

(Yes, and can you tell where it was you went to them?) 

B . . . On the train. I first went away from home. 

(In what direction?) West. (Yes, and I was seeking to have it on 
paper for evidence.) 

Yes, of course, and I saw some slight changes in the picture to any- 
thing I had seen before as a picture of my mother. Such changes, however, 
could have easily been made by an artist. It was more than a photograph. 

(Yes.) I intended to say that before. (I understand.) 

But it was not a bad piece of art nor superior, but still not execrable. 

(I understand. What was the reputation of the artists in the matter?) 

As varied as the clientele. Some cried. Impostors, some cried, Most 
gifted of the world's psychics. C . . . C h . . . Chicago. 

(Good, that is the place.) 

Yes, that is where I went. L...L...M... Bangs. 

(That is good.) 

Sisters. They talk as devotedly to the subject as you or I, but I have an 
idea it is trade talk, but do not yet know the methods used. It would be 
easy if collusion were discovered. 

Dr. Funk visited the Bangs sisters to try their work at what was 
called spirit paintings. The conjurer can duplicate such phenom- 
ena with considerable ease. But Dr. Funk had an old photograph 
of his mother and did not show it or take it out of his pocket. He 
got a picture of her which he regarded as a good likeness and his 
son told me that he saw the likeness of his grandmother in it. I 
myself saw the painting, but not the original. Dr. Funk had not 
made up his mind about its character. That he told me in my con- 
versation with him when I saw it at his home in Brooklyn. He was 
puzzled to accotint for it under the conditions, as that picture was 
so rare. The L and M are the initials of the Bangs sisters' 
Christian names. 

Mrs. Chenoweth knew of the existence of the Bangs sisters and 
the nature of their work. But that w^as all, in so far as the present 
incident is concerned. The subliminal might have guessed the 



DR. ISAAC K. FUNK 291 

place after the allusion was made to the fact that " two " were con- 
cerned in the picture and after my admission that it was '' West," 
Chicago and the Bangs sisters would be a natural guess after that, 
for any one who knew them and their work. But she did not know 
the other facts. The intimate personal traits and opinions of Dr. 
Funk on this incident were not known to her and were known to 
very few even of his acquaintances. His attitude toward the in- 
cident is described with perfect correctness and accuracy. The de- 
scription of the two sisters as having a reputation as varied as their 
clientele is literally correct and well known to Dr. Funk, and could 
be known to Mrs. Chenoweth, but the terms of the description are 
not like Mrs. Chenoweth and are like Dr. Funk. 

Dr. Funk did not appear again until June 14th, 19 16. I was 
busy with other w^ork in the meantime. When he did appear he 
first gave his name and began with a reference to the picture which 
I have mentioned in detail, and spoke of the cost of such work in 
rather humorous terms. Then he immediately took up his posthum- 
ous letter and warned me that it would take a little time to deliver 
its contents. He again referred to simplified spelling, but got no 
further at that sitting. 

At the next sitting, June 15th, he began by explaining the diffi- 
culties in communicating and, though at first it contained no ele- 
ment of personal identity, it soon revealed a very subtle character- 
istic imbedded in ideas beyond the knowledge of the psychic. He 
began with his Christian name and then came the following. 

I am here again and it does not seem at all strange. In fact it is so 
natural that it is with some difficulty I realize that I am making a bridge 
of myself. 

You know how easily one drops into conversation with interested friends 
and when a specific matter is questioned the mind becomes unruly and 
questions its own knowledge, even when perfectly sure ten minutes before 
that the knowledge was exact and correct. I think that is exactly what 
happens here or anywhere when we try to express a particular idea. It 
seems more like that to me than like trying to master or conquer an- 
other outside element which you people have named the subliminal of 
the medium. I think we need not go outside our own experiences to 
find ample reason for the disturbances mentally when trying to recall. It 
is very like trying to recall what certain things would be in French or 
German or a language we did not commonly use, a sort of translating 



292 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

process because we are not as dependent on language as you are. 

(I see.) 

Sounds were not always the means of communication in earlier tribes 
of men, but developed powers given new expressions, and signs and 
symbols were left behind, and with some difficulty new methods of speech 
were adopted and the mongrel method of signs and sounds, still used by 
the race, is a left over condition. So much that comes to us is a mongrel 
expression of a past form of intercourse, and much that we commonly use 
drops into the effort and leaves hiatuses which seem like sorry efforts at 
communication. 

I have wanted to pass this theory of mine down to you for some time, 
but have had no chance. It is not in the least like telepathy, this method 
of communication between us here, but has as much to do with vision as 
sound. 

The subtle point of personal identity in this is the reflection of 
Dr. Funk's study of the principles of language, when living, in 
order to work out a scientific basis for simplifying our spelling 
evidence of which I often remarked in his office. On this question 
the message is not perfectly clear, except in reference to certain 
points. But it is evident that he is trying to compare our own 
normal methods of intercourse and those which prevail on the other 
side and affect the process and the contents of the communica- 
tions received by us. The statement that with them vision has as 
much to do with the process as sound is only a recognition of the 
pictographic process and includes the similar characteristic in sound. 
That is, clairvoyance is as much a factor in communication as 
clairaudience, and the connection between their methods of trans- 
mitting to us and our own intercommunication by the symbolism of 
language which is sound only and involves physical phenomena, is 
that the symbols are quite different. We should say that it was like 
telepathy in that respect. Dr. Funk denies this, and it is at this 
point that he indicates a point of personal identity, as he knew 
nothing about the pictographic process and thought telepathy a 
transmission without the use of symbols or hallucinatory pictures. 

There is no trace to me of Mrs. Chenoweth's knowledge in the 
passage, though the terminology is at least partly hers. The ex- 
pression " left over " is hers for certain mental phenomena, notice- 
able in her own conscious experience, but the ideas are more subtle 
than anything she knows about language and the processes of 



DR. ISAAC K. FUNK 293 

human intercommunication. The whole subject reflects the deeper 
aspects of Dr. Funk's mind on the question of language. But he 
went on a little later and stated that there was a telepathic com- 
munication between them and us and that it w^as the result of 
*' some other contact." I saw that he had opened a question as 
to the nature of telepathy and asked him if he meant to say that 
telepathy between spirits and the living required the aid of another 
party, and his reply was the query to know if I was " referring to 
the message bearer theory now." On my assent, his reply was a 
most interesting one, though we cannot verify it. Of the trans- 
mission he says : 

" That is often purposely done, but conversations, spirit contact and 
consequent knowledge of situations and emotions, often fall into the con- 
sciousness of a sensitive quite irrespective of definite purpose, but such 
knowledge is being expressed somewhere at the time, else it could not over- 
flow." 

Here we have an intermediary involved in the telepathic trans- 
mission of thoughts of the dead to us and with the fact also the 
involuntary transmission of thoughts going on elsewhere at the 
time, a phenomena which I have often remarked in the work of 
the psychic. While it does not directly assert that the same process 
is connected with telepathy between the living, it is more or less im- 
plied by the conception outlined and that intermediary would most 
likely be a discamate spirit, and both the sporadic character of the 
phenomena in the apparent purposelessness of much of it would 
favor the view. 

The next day, the i6th, he recurred again to his method of in- 
vestigating and referred to dark seances which he had often had, 
though not constantly, the facts being wholly unknown to Mrs. 
Chenoweth. He remarked : " I have heard it said that I was 
easily fooled, an old idiot who could be fooled with his eyes shut, 
but I don't need to refute that statement here: for you know the 
best detective work is done when one is supposed to be unwary." 

This was quite characteristic of the man and was a secret with 
himself and a few friends. Finding that he was getting confused 
in what he was saying, he changed the subject to the Bible and said 
he was a believer in it, which was true, and he thought, as he says 



294 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

here in the message, that " some light might be given to certain 
passages and statements by the study of the occult." I saw my 
chance and took up the subject. 

(What passages, for instance?) 

I thought the matter of some of the old Testament stories might well 
be explained by the understanding of the laws governing the modern 
manifestations. 

(What in the Old Testament, for instance?) 

Just a minute. I wanted to reconcile old and new mythological Biblical 
statements. Some of this you may know about, for it was a matter of 
interest to me, often expressed to my psychic research friends. The woman 
of Endor and Moses and the Commandments. Red Sea episode and Samuel. 

The misinterpretation of these with several others brought darkness 
rather than light, and I believe now as I did before I came here, that the 
light on the ancient Scripture will come through modern interpretation, 
through the knowledge obtained through psychic research work. 

While we never discussed this subject specifically, he threw out 
remarks about the relation of psychic research to religion that prove 
this message to be very characteristic, as characteristic as it is cor- 
rect about the problem. But Mrs. Chenoweth, whatever she be- 
lieves, did not know Dr. Funk's views on the matter. 

He then went on to state the change of view which he made in 
the doctrine of the resurrection and added that, " when we lift 
ourselves to the divine state, our communicators will be of that 
type, but while we are less than that, we receive visitors of our own 
ilk." I expressed my assent and we continued: "We have had 
some straight talks before I came here, and we w^ere of the same 
mind on these things, and the conception of making our messages 
other than from people like ourselves never came to us, plain 
people returning in plain fashion." 

This passage is a clear reference to what I knew to be character- 
istic of Dr. Funk when he once remarked to me in conversation that 
the dead were " not angels but just folks." He had no patience 
with the ordinary conceptions of the dead, and knew nothing about 
the processes necessary to get the more spiritual type of message. 
I tried at this point, without hinting what I wanted to see, if I 
could get him to refer to a view which he once mentioned to me 
as an alternative to spirits ; namely, the '' demons " of the New 
Testament, but he did not catch my point. He referred, however. 



DR. ISAAC K. FUNK 295 

to a perplexity which had troubled him at times; namely the 
" cosmic reservoir theory " and also " dual consciousness," which 
might be convertible with his '' demon theory," and remarked that 
" we knocked down so many straw men before we built up our 
final form " of theory. 

This too was the substance of many a conversation and repre- 
sents his attitude and conception of the problem clearly enough. 
He did not appear again until June 19th and then began with the 
remark that he had known Whirlwind before he died. Whirlwind 
is one of the controls of Mrs. Chenoweth, otherwise spoken of as 
Jennie P. His statement was true as he had seen records of her 
work and was interested in her personality, a fact Mrs. Chenoweth 
did not know. He then went on to his own work again. 

I knew the tricksters quite as well as you, or better, for I had the temerity 
to risk being duped, and one by one I found them out and piled up my 
evidence for and against. I thought it best to know for myself and not 
to take the word of some one else. 

(I understand.) 

I think it time that some of these people whom we both knew should 
take some responsibility toward shaping the destiny of the work. 

(Could you not from your side influence one of them to help? You 
know whom I mean.) 

Yes I think so, for there is more done from this side than is supposed. 
You refer to our friend in New York who has been approached be- 
fore, through some friends of his, but who seems slow to see the impor- 
tance of the endowment. I think endowment ought to be understood as 
meaning equipment to unearth the truth about this subject either for or 
against. Some very canny people would be glad to have a devil un- 
masked, but never care about putting aside the veil from the face of 
God's angels. 

(Who tried to approach that man?) 

Let me think. It was done, I think, before I came here. 

(Yes it was.) 

I mean before I died, and I thought at one time we might get some- 
thing as well as the various towns and groups that did, and when I came 
here he was one of my first attacking points. Andrew Carnegie. 

(Yes, that is correct.) 

Peace seems to have needed ammunition, but he does not need to with- 
draw from that in order to give us a due interest. Angle worms get quite 
as much attention as angels. 

Dr. Funk had investigated " tricksters " more than I had done. 
Mrs. Chenoweth did not know this fact, and he had studied the 



296 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

results as stated. The allusion to endowment, it will be seen, was 
quite spontaneous and I at once directed my tactics to see what he 
would say on that point. The result justified my expectations. 
Dr. Funk himself is exactly represented in views taken here, as 
shown in many a conversation with me, and he himself had tried 
three times to get Mr. Carnegie to help us, but without success. He 
was close enough to Mr. Carnegie in the matter of simplified spell- 
ing to venture on this, but was at last denied the matter in a rather 
plain way. The remark about angle worms is an interesting 
reminiscence of the work of Darwin as compared with the investi- 
gation of the human soul. It was exactly Dr. Funk's idea of the 
matter, though he never used that particular analogy to me. 

Following this message immediately, he took up a subject of 
his own experience whose pertinence in this connection it would 
require much time to explain, but its evidential import is easy. He 
asked : 

Do you recall Brooklyn and work done there and some queer things that 
happened which were in the nature of evidence? 

(Yes, tell all about it.) 

Circles where some manifestations of a physical nature purported to be 
given and where ghosts, apparitions, sounds, lights came. 

This is a clear reference to some dark seances in Brooklyn where 
just such occurrences took place and he always reserved his opin- 
ion about them, as intimated in the use of the term " purported," 
and owing to the incident of the " Widow's Mite " which occurred 
there, he took me once to the performance, at which nothing of 
interest occurred, except that I was convinced that the medium, a 
private person, was honest, though doing things which the con- 
jurer would call fraud, but which were evidently somnambulic 
phenomena on the borderland of the genuine. Mrs. Chenoweth 
could know none of these things. The sequel is interesting as 
proving that I have rightly interpreted the incident. 

Dr. Funk did not appear till June 28th, but on June 27th Henry 
Ward Beecher purported to communicate. The importance of this 
lies in the fact that he was for a long time the pastor of Dr. Funk in 
Brooklyn and was connected, as a communicator, with the very 
experiments mentioned in the last quotation from Dr. Funk, Mr, 



DR. ISAAC K. FUNK 297 

Beecher began and communicated about the difference between his 
work and ours, but recognizing the far reaching import of the 
scientific side of it, and half jocosely treating of emphasizing the 
difference. I did not know who was communicating and I inter- 
rupted the generality of the message to ascertain his identity. It 
resulted in the following passage, with an item of unusual interest 
in the personal identity of both men. 

(May I ask who is communicating?) 

Your friend, I. F., Isaac Funk, is my friend and he laughed at some 
things I asked about your efforts and his, and he was to write to- 
day. He [was] always a clergyman with leanings toward the unusual. 
Did you know that he could preach ? 

(Yes.) V 

A sort of emergency fund. When he could do nothing else, he could 
preach, he told me, but he did too many other things to make his preach- 
ing the one great power in his life. I knew him and love him. 

I am H. W. B. Brooklyn, Plymouth. 

(Yes, that's right.) 

I could no more rest on a cloud of glory than Mark Twain. We have 
to find some way to get back, if it is only as a supply, when the regular 
pastor goes away. 

(I understand.) 

I have quite as much interest in my fellow travellers as Funk or you, 
even if I wrote no posthumous letters to startle an unsuspecting world. 

(I understand. Did you ever communicate with Dr. Funk?) 

Yes, yes, and tried to wake him up to the importance of the cause and 
he knew I came to him, too. 

(What incident?) 

There you go. What did I tell you? 

(Yes.) [I laughed heartily as he was joking me on my evidential 
bent.] 

It is not how you can make your power felt, but what kind of chips 
did you use to make the tea kettle boil. Well, if you must pin me down 
like a school master here it is. 

I came to him several times, and on one occasion a message proved 
of value to him, and I always felt I would like to tell him that I did it 
myself. He used to wonder if I did it or got some one to do it for me. 
Money, there was money in that message. 

(Yes, go ahead.) 

And money that made him take notice. The old lady, the old lady, 
good old widow. 

The control was lost at this point, but to those familiar with the 
facts the passage is clear. This is the story told in Dr. Funk's 



298 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

book " The Widow's Mite." In working up the Standard Dic- 
tionary, Dr. Funk got one of the ancient coins, called the '' Widow's 
Mite," once owned by Mr. Beecher, to use in an illustration. At 
one of the sittings in Brooklyn referred to, in the passage quoted 
previous to the message immediately above, Mr. Beecher purported 
to communicate and referred to this coin and said it had not been 
returned. Dr. Funk said that it had, but Mr. Beecher said that 
it had not, and told just where it was. Dr. Funk wxnt to his office 
and to the safe where he knew it had been kept at one time, but 
could not find it in the place to which he had been directed by 
Mr. Beecher. He then went to another sitting and Mr. Beecher 
again communicated. Mr. Beecher was told that the coin was not 
where he, Mr. Beecher, had said it was. Mr. Beecher described the 
situation more minutely. Dr. Funk went aw^ay and made a second 
and more careful search and found an envelop w^ith two of the 
coins in it. But he did not know which one was Mr. Beecher 's or 
which one was genuine. He knew that one of them w^as counter- 
feit. He thought the red one genuine. He returned to the sit- 
tings and told Mr. Beecher what he found and asked which one 
was genuine, and was told that it was the black one. Dr. Funk 
did not think so. He went home and sent both coins to the Phila- 
delphia Mint and asked which was the genuine " Widow's Mite." 
The reply was the same as Mr. Beecher's; namely, the black one. 
The pointedness of the incident explains itself, and considering 
that Mrs. Chenoweth had not seen or read the book in which the 
incident was made public, the reference to it here by the original 
sender in company with the receiver makes a cross reference of 
the incident as well as an incident in proof of the identity of both 
men. The only weakness in it is its liability tO' casual information 
from gossip about Dr. Funk and the " Widow's Mite," and its 
connection w^ith Mr. Beecher. The connection, however, aiid the 
withholding of the communicator's name are so much in favor of the 
genuineness of the phenomenon here and also the manner of making 
the reference to the idea rather than to the specific incident when 
the subliminal should have reproduced the exact language of the 
recorded incident. The relation to the previous allusion to the 
Brooklyn sittings, about which Mrs. Chenoweth did not know the 



DR. ISAAC K. FUNK 299 

facts, also is some protection to the case and in all it has an unusual 
and complicated interest. 

The next day Dr. Funk took up the matter and stated things 
that had not been recorded in his account of the facts. He said 
that " the British Museum held nothing better." This was true 
enough and no part of the incident as published. He then took up 
his experiments and mine in an instructive statement reflecting his 
personal identity in a way not known to Mrs. Chenoweth. He 
started with a reference to the contents of his posthumous letter. 

I tried to make simple assertions, because we, you and I, had talked about 
the difficulties of getting complex statements through. 

(Yes we did.) 

And I knew that the vultures would be after my bones. I had been 
falsely identified with so many associations when I had only shown the 
interest of the passer by. 

(I understand.) 

You knew that and you kept away. We had to make a special ar- 
rangement for you, either at your house or another, for the public demon- 
stration did not appeal to you. 

(Correct.) 

That will not help you much, though, when you die. They will lie just 
as glibly then as they do now. 

I do not know about the first statement of this message, as it 
pertains to his posthumous letter which has not yet been opened. 
But the rest of the passage is exactly correct and not known to 
Mrs. Chenoweth, though she might have inferred by lack of in- 
terest in public demonstrations. But she did not know that Dr. 
Funk was aware of the fact, and especially did not know that he 
was exactly correct in stating that the only way he could get 
me interested was to make an appointment at my own house or 
some private house other than my own. The mental tone of it 
also is his, especially his consciousness of how he was regarded 
and his indifference to it. Mrs. Chenoweth did not know the man 
well enough to reproduce him in this manner. 

Immediately he followed this message by one In reference to a 
psychic whom he had often met and with whom he had experi- 
mented, identifying her by reference to Judge Dailey by name 
with whom he was well acquainted and concerning which fact Mrs. 



300 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

Chenoweth knew nothing, though she knew well enough about 
Judge Dailey and this medium. He referred to this medium in un- 
mistakably clear terms, and then referred to another one in correct 
terms, comparing the two persons correctly and recognizing that 
the latter had genuine powers. This was recognized by Dr. Hodg- 
son when living. While Mrs. Chenoweth knew about both psy-chics, 
she did not know that Dr. Funk knew them so intimately. 

At the next sitting, June 29th, he alluded to Mr. Carnegie briefly 
again, and then passed to communications about things on that 
side. There was nothing in them that is verifiable, except some 
statements about religion which were characteristic of him and not 
in any way known to Mrs. Chenoweth. Though the passages are 
interesting they are too long to quote and have no value in proving 
anything when taken alone. In the course of them, however, he 
turned aside to mention a matter which required him to speak of 
his son which he did, the fact that he had a living son not being 
known to the psychic. But he first gave the name Benjamin which 
was the name of his brother who had died a short time before this 
and was not known in any way to the public. The circumstance 
had evidential character of considerable importance and later he 
corrected the mistake here made of confusing him for a moment 
with his son. 

On June 30th he recurred again to Whirlwind in a correct way and 
evidentially, but for the previous reference to her, and then made 
the remark, while explaining the confusion about his brother and 
son, that spirits communicated automatically while they might be 
thinking on another matter. Though we cannot prove this individ- 
ual statement, there is evidence that the statement is probably cor- 
rect. At least the facts make it a legitimate hypothesis to be tested 
and proved in the future. It certainly explained why he mentioned 
his deceased brother Benjamin when he should have mentioned his 
living son, who was the only person concerned with the matter of 
his message at the time, and who was definitely indicated in the 
correction. He continued his communications on the process of 
transmitting messages and then turned to a matter still to be con- 
sidered. At the sitting of July ist which followed he referred first 
to an attack in the '' Brooklyn Eagle " upon him for his adven- 



DR. ISAAC K. FUNK 301 

tures in this subject. This paper had attacked him along with 
others, and the fact was not known to Mrs. Chenoweth, as it 
occurred before the new American Society was organized, and 
was not known specially outside the city in which he lived. Toward 
the end of the sitting he referred to some old letters he had and 
specifying one as from Abraham Lincoln. Inquiry showed that 
he had corresponded with many public men about that time, but no 
letter from Mr. Lincoln was found. 

On July 5th, after an interval occupied with another person, 
he returned to the work and referred to his library, and when I 
remarked that I knew nothing of it, he went on as follows : 

You know nothing of my home ? 

(No, nothing save that I was in it once.) 

I thought you had been there, but it was when something was going on. 

(Yes, and you showed me that picture . . .) [Writing began before I 
had finished my statement.] 

Yes mother's and there were some other things that went with it, 
slates, messages you know. 

(Yes I do.) 

And some were very apparent tricks and some were not so apparent, 
but possible tricks. 

(Yes I understand.) 

And I flatter myself that the perpetrators never knew my real opinions, 
for I wanted the result whatever it might be. 

It was his mother's picture that he showed me on this occasion. 
I do not recall that he showed me any slates at that time, but he 
did show me slates and tricks he had witnessed on another occasion. 
His attitude on the phenomena is correctly indicated. The trick- 
sters never found out what he thought about them. He was too 
sly to give himself away. The remainder of the sitting was taken 
up with another matter. 

At the next sitting little came that I can easily make clear until 
the end. Then the following was given. 

I wonder if you recall anything about a hotel interview in New York. 
(With whom,?) You. (Yes, go ahead.) 
You and a medium, meeting with spirits. 
(Yes, tell me all about that.) 

I have been more eager to recall it, for there were several things in- 
volved that only you and I knew. 



qo2 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 



o 



(Yes, stick to it.) 

Sometime ago it was, and it proved of greater value than we knew at 
the time. 

(Do you remember who the important communicator was?) 
Yes, that I will tell. 

The psychic suddenly came out of the trance before the message 
was completed. We had a sitting at a hotel in New Y^ork at 
which a mutual friend was present with Dr. Funk and myself. 
The psychic was a private person of good standing. The com- 
municator was Thompson Jay Hudson and he answered a question 
of Dr. Funk's involving a private matter that passed between the 
two men and that none of us but Dr. Funk knew. To have gotten 
the name of Hudson at this juncture would have been a most ex- 
cellent piece of evidence. But he failed at this time and later al- 
luding to the matter again referred to a " man across the water." 
The other person present on the occasion was a man from England. 
Later he got the name Thompson through and thus cleared up his 
original intention and made the evidence excellent. 

But in the same sitting he alluded to another incident of some in- 
terest which had been a very funny one. Professor Shaler had 
tried to communicate with me and got into serious trouble in the 
effort. His getting free was a very funny incident. Mrs. Cheno- 
weth knew nothing about it. Dr. Funk was told it by me, because 
it was an incident he would enjoy and because it threw light on the 
difficulties of communicating. He here referred to him and the 
incident. It was better evidence of supernormal knowledge than 
it was of personal identity, though it had some features, as re- 
marked, of this. 

He did not appear again until July nth, and even then only 
an incident or two has special pertinence. He was referred to by 
the control as interested in " the Enigma of Existence " and I was 
asked at once if I saw " the semblance of the title " and when I 
assented, the statement came : " I thought you did. The Sphinx 
has spoken." He was then said to have known the Bible '' from 
beginning to end." This last was perfectly true and not known by 
the psychic. The reference to the Sphinx and to the ** Enigma of 
Existence " and the semblance of the title was evidently a re- 



DR. ISAAC K. FUNK 303 

minder of the title to his book called " The Psychic Riddle," which 
Mrs. Chenoweth did not know. 

Dr. Funk did not appear again until February 9th, 19 17, when 
he appeared with Henry Ward Beecher again. I had been occu- 
pied in the meantime with another matter. Mr. Beecher did not 
reveal his identity, and my question brought Dr. Funk to the fore. 
He indicated who was with him, but only after he had made the 
following communication. 

I want to speak of a bronze piece. 

(Describe it.) 

[A circle was drawn.] Medallion. Did I try to tell you something of 
a medal when I was here before? It is a medallion made of bronze with 
repousse figures. Much interest to me. I thought I wrote about it before. 

(I do not recall it. Did it have a special name?) 

What did you do to my old friend Henry Ward? [I had received the 
previous communication from Mr. Beecher with much indifference, as he 
did not identify himself and I was anxious to have something else,] 

(Do you know?) 

Gave him a chilling greeting. He is smiling here and says he thinks 
you would have no use for the Angel Gabriel, if you had an engagement 
with Jack Jones to give evidence. 

To return to H. W. B. [Beecher.] This was an occasion earlier than 
this one to-day and he also tried to make connections at another place. 
You know Lee, not here, but another place, another light. 

(I don't know anything about it.) 

Do not be too hasty for this is sometime ago, and I was there too. 

I did not recognize what was meant by the allusion to the " bronze 
medal," and inquiry showed that he had no such thing so far as 
the son knew. But the sequel showed that he meant the '* Widow's 
Mite " which was of bronze, and the mental picture by which the 
message was transmitted involved a mistake by the control in the 
interpretation of the picture, taking the picture of this small coin 
as that of a " bronze medal." 

The reference to Mrs. Lee was very striking, as the sequel proved 
it to be. Mrs. Chenoweth knew nothing about her. I had never 
mentioned the lady or her work to Mrs. Chenoweth, and I did not 
know what the reference here meant. I wrote to her at once to 
know if she had any photograph of either Mr. Beecher or Dr. 
Funk among those she had taken. She replied that she had one 
of Mr. Beecher taken sometime previously, but none of Dr. Funk, 



304 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

so far as she knew. She sent me the picture and no one what- 
ever would question the identity of the man in it. It is an excellent 
photograph of him. It claims to be a spirit photograph and Mrs. 
Chenoweth could not know about the fact. I was familiar with 
Mrs. Lee's work, and published some of it in the " Proceedings," of 
which Mrs. Chenoweth knew nothing, but did not myself know 
about this photograph of Mr. Beecher. 

Dr. Funk did not appear again until February 12th, 19 17. He 
began characteristically with a quotation from ist Thessalonians, 
but without definite meaning that can now be determined. He then 
went on to say that he thought the sacred books of the East might 
be studied with advantage to psychic research. But he accom- 
panied the statement with the remark that " precepts " had accom- 
panied the giving of " performances " and noted that Christ accom- 
panied his precepts by " miracles." The importance of^-this state- 
ment is not its truth, which any one may know, but its special 
relevance to Dr. Funk whose saturation with biblical ideas was not 
known to Mrs. Chenoweth. 

He followed this by a long statement of the process of com- 
municating, which, though it is not evidential ^taken by itself, so 
conforms to what I have observed in the facts generally, that it 
deserves quoting. He had been preceded by Imperator or some 
such personality and wanted to take up the work of giving a special 
message prepared before death. 

It is not to disconnect myself from that task, but to relate myself to it 
by saturating the subliminal mind, which merely means the more active 
mind of the light, of saturating that with my own personal feelings until 
I recall the past as a past, as a part of myself, and not as a detached piece 
of information, which seems so foreign as to challenge question in my 
own mind, and thus create active mind currents ' which tend to produce 
several sorts of evidence and make for incorrect statements. 

One thing that friends who have tried to understand the working of 
this power have overlooked is that the sleeping light may be sleeping physi- 
cally and have awakened more active brain currents than when in actual 
physical conscious contact with the present friend, and so it is not enough 
to be sure of the sleeping state. There must be a flowing in of other 
currents of knowledge in sufficient power, force if you will, to push out the 
remaining elements of the remaining inhabitant. 

It is plain to me that it takes time and experience to do this, and that 
even when it is done for one, as it is sometimes by a guide like Imperator 



DR. ISAAC K. FUNK 305 

&c., that guide will also leave somewhat of himself, which in turn must be 
pushed out, so when a man like Professor James or Frank Podmore or 
like myself begins to reason and argue and preach, you may know he is 
taking possession for future work of some more minute and definite import. 

(I understand.) 

It is for this reason, I believe, that the familiar guide has been employed 
in the usual work, and I can understand it as never before, and the less 
that familiar guide has of preconceived ideas of the methods of life and 
general activities, the more free it is to express without bias or prejudice 
the truthful picturing or imagery given by the outside and disconnected 
spirit. 

(Is a guide always connected with a message?) 

No, unless you call any one who is able to transmit a message. 

(I meant to ask if a spirit always had the help of another when giving 
a message.) 

Do you mean here at this light? 

(Yes.) [I really meant anywhere, but would not divert the thought-] 

Yes, because this is a very carefully ordered and organized work. But, 
for instance, in my own case now, I am alone in this effort to write and 
retain my will to recall, but as I took control I was helped by those who 
watch the process, and if I had imparted to my wife or mother, or some 
other, the exact words I wished to write, they would prompt me, but I 
night then be subject to imperfect hearing or seeing while in the act of 
controlling, and I preferred to play the part which the familiar guide 
plays, and that is what Imperator tries to do in all the cases where he is 
interested. That is why we always get into writing conversationally. 

The interesting psychological point of this message, in its refer- 
ence to saturating the medium with his own personality, in order 
to transmit a specific message, is that, as Mrs. Chenoweth came out 
of the trance, in the subliminal stage, she thought she was a man, 
and repudiated the idea with some vigor. 

The whole picture is clear for those familiar psychologically with 
the work of Mrs. Chenoweth, though the passage is fragmentary 
and tinged with her own terminology now and then. It is this. 
The public thinks that the trance is important in securing messages 
because people suppose that all mental activity is suspended in the 
trance and that whatever comes in that state is the pure and un- 
adulterated thought of the communicator. This is an illusion and 
the communicator is here correcting it. The subliminal is as ac- 
tive in the trance as the normal consciousness out of it, and may even 
be enhanced in its powers according to the communicator. As 
long as that is not in rapport with the spirit or transcendental world, 



3o6 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

we would get only products of the subliminal, even though it was 
actually stimulated from without. But put it in rapport with the 
spiritual world and transmit to the " dreaming consciousness," to 
use Mrs. Sidgwick's terms, the thoughts of the communicator, and 
you will have at least the mingled or interfused thoughts of com- 
municator and subconscious. To purify the message the communi- 
cator must inhibit the subliminal stream of the medium or so satur- 
ate it with his own personality and thoughts as to get their ex- 
pression in the writing or speech of the medium instead of its own 
current of thought. It seems also that it is necessary to eliminate 
the impressions left on the mind of the medium by some previous 
communicator. I have seen many evidences of this, but cannot 
quote them here. They are analogous to the changes of thought 
in a mind without knowing that a change of stimulus has taken 
place. That is, a line of thought in one direction serves to hamper 
a change of it to another line. 

At the next sitting, February 13th, he mentioned his brother 
Benjamin by name and then referred first to Brooklyn as his New 
York home and immediately to the New Jersey home, using the 
expression '' N. J. home. Mountain View," and explaining that 
it was the same as '' Montclair," as I first read the word " Moun- 
tain." These were wholly unknown to Mrs. Chenoweth, as he spent 
only a few years there at the end of his life. 

After a few general allusions to his long study of the subject, 
he said he had some manuscripts of value and many old photographs 
of friends and added that his " family was never much on having 
likenesses taken." Inquiry shows that he had some important 
manuscripts and that the mother was averse to having her picture 
taken, as the son thinks. He then went on in a confused message 
to say that he had " two places where he could keep things " and 
said he was not referring to his ofBce. But he mentioned some 
" paraphernalia " which he described as relics of his experiments 
and the tricks that mediums tried to play on him. The son does 
not recall any such inner room, but I was once taken to an inner 
room in his office where he had kept a number of just such relics 
of mediumistic performances and we examined them quite care- 



DR. ISAAC K. FUNK 307 

fully. He then referred to having seen Professor Muensterberg 
after his death. But the allusion was not evidential. 

A curious and indirect piece of evidence was a communication 
from his mother on February 14th. It is valuable as representing 
things which it was impossible for the psychic to know, whatever 
we may suppose she did or might know about Dr. Funk. In the 
first place she spoke of him by his Christian name, just as a mother 
might naturally do, and evidently referred for him to an incident 
which was not made as clear the first time as was necessary. It was 
from her reference to it that I learned what the earlier allusion 
really meant. The following is the message. 

I know that the idea of medals and medallions and all articles which 
suggest such form is a left over impression of his most striking evidence, 
and he is the receiver of so many suggestions of that nature from the living 
and the dead, because of his known interest in the ancient coin, and it 
always comes with force as he attempts to write. 

When the " Widow's Mite " was referred to before as a " medal- 
Hon," I did not even suspect at the time that he meant the coin. He 
had not used the technical term. Evidently the pictographic proc- 
ess had concealed from the control and the psychic what the in- 
tention was and the picture could be described and interpreted only 
from its external appearance. Here this is repeated, but fortunately 
the mother got the association between the " medallion " and the 
" ancient coin " established, so as to show what the meaning was 
in the earlier message. The mother was helping the son by acting 
as his intermediary, and though it is buried in subliminal coloring 
the import is unmistakable. 

Immediately following this message, she referred to Martin 
Luther and the Wartburg and added some fragmentary communi- 
cations that were evidently an attempt to show how different ver- 
sions of the special message he planned to give might be caused 
by the difficulties of communication. There was an allusion to 
different translations of texts and evidently the reference to Luther 
and the Wartburg was to the translation of the Bible by Luther 
when there, and the incident was probably a part of a comparison 
to show that his message might take as various forms as transla- 



3o8 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

tions of biblical texts. The value of the point, however, is that 
she, when living, was a Lutheran and naturally thought of associa- 
tions of that kind. Mrs. Chenoweth knew nothing about his re- 
ligious affiliations or hers. Even I only accidentally learned what 
they were, as he had long since been connected with Congregational 
associations, especially under Mr. Beecher. 

It was March 28th, 19 17, before he appeared again, other work 
having occupied my time and attention. When he came, he gave 
his attention to a ring, a pin, possibly breast pin, with hair in it, 
and an earring, saying that the ring was either that of his mother 
or wife. This message came by the indirect method and hence 
through the control. Consequently the doubt about the person 
to whom it belonged. They were said to be in a box. A ring is 
too common an object to make specially evidential, unless more is 
said of it. But the son had the mother's ring and a pin, not as here 
described, however, in a box for safe keeping. But he knew of 
no earring. Then came the following: 

Has he ever referred to a family record of births and deaths? 

(I think not.) 

This looks like an old Bible of some size which was a part of the 
family life, and in which is a record of births, and I see 7, the figure 7, as 
if it were a count of some names recorded. It is not all that is there, 
but it is one branch which is so recorded, and there is a name which begins 
with R. That is all for this time. 

On March 30th the same subject was taken up again by the in- 
direct method, after a sort of humorous apology on the part of 
Jennie P. for showing unusual biblical knowledge which she dis- 
claimed having. 

There was something said about the family Bible. I think G. P. took 
that picture, did he not? 

(Yes he did.) 

Well, there is more to that; for in that Bible there have been no records 
kept for a long time, but there you will find a space between two groups 
of records, as if there were some things to be discovered and written in, 
but it was never done. 

I mean by the discovery that some questions were to have been asked 
and it was not done, and the record remains incomplete. Mr. Wordman 
[Jennie P's name for Dr. Funk] says that there have been several attempts 
to get into communication with him at another place. 



DR. ISAAC K. FUNK 309 

I of course knew nothing about this and neither did the son 
when I made the inquiry. He knew that there was an old family 
Bible, but had to make inquiries to find where it was. After some 
difficulty he located it and found that there were two groups of 
names there, as described, one of them with six or seven names, 
with a space between to put in names omitted. There was none 
with the initial R in the first group. But the incident is sufficiently 
specific to be an excellent one, in spite of the fact that it might be 
said that records of births and deaths are very frequently recorded 
in family Bibles. But the other details make it somewhat excep- 
tional. 

The collective import of these facts ought to be clear. We may 
find fault with any one or each incident by itself as measured against 
all knowledge of such phenomena in other cases. But it will not 
be easy to offer normal explanations for the complex and articulated 
whole. It happened that, in spite of his having been a public man, 
Mrs. Chenoweth knew little or nothing about him. She would not 
even have known his name but for the fact that his conversion 
to Spiritualism was bruited about as a conquest. Only casual in- 
formation came to her and of that very little. The intimate and 
private things which I have quoted in the text were often wholly 
unknown to me and I very frequently saw the man and had long 
conversations with him. Hence when we take the group of private 
things unknown to Mrs. Chenoweth and to me, their collective sig- 
nificance is not to be despised, and it is synthetic or collective im- 
port that constitutes scientific evidence. 

Now when you have eliminated fraud it does not take much evi- 
dence to prove the supernormal, and when you once get the super- 
normal, it is not much more difficult to exclude the alternatives to 
spirits. For intelligent readers telepathy will have no standing 
in the explanation of these phenomena, unless you ascribe powers 
too far beyond access to my own knowledge. That process applied 
to reading my mind is effectually excluded here, and the selective- 
ness of the incidents is so natural on the hypothesis that it is Dr. 
Funk\who is the source of them, although they have to pass through 
even several minds before I get them, and is unescapable save by sub- 
terfuges which have no scientific standing whatever. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
CARROLL D. WRIGHT 

MR. CARROLL D. WRIGHT was United States Labor 
Commissioner and afterward President of Clarke College 
in Worcester, Mass. This is all that I knew about him, 
save that he had studied his problems statistically. I found by in- 
quiry that Mrs. Chenoweth knew nothing about him and apparently 
had never even heard of him. His name was given in sittings con- 
nected with Professor James and the claim made that he and 
Professor James were personal friends. This turned out to be 
erroneous and the confusion seems to have been due to the fact that 
Professor James did know Chauncy Wright, a colleague in Harvard 
University. During several sittings various incidents identifying 
Mr. Carroll D. Wright together with his full name came through, 
but they were not striking enough to emphasize here. Finally the 
following incidents came that had more weight. But some that 
might have been excellent were not verifiable and I resorted to an 
experiment described below that came to better results. 

In one of my own experiments with the automatic writing the^ 
following incident was very pertinent. 

C. W. places his hands on the table and says that he thought all the 
physical phenomena were easily explained by magnetic influence or simple 
fraud, but he has reversed that opinion. The subtle influence of spirit 
was not plain to him except as a factor in life. The communication with 
the dead was unsatisfactory in most instances, but he was not a psychologist, 
and so did not comprehend what was being done. 

I learned from the family what I did not previously know, that 
Mr. Wright had witnessed physical phenomena in his early days, 
having seen table tipping, which is hinted at here by the reference 
to " his hands on the table." But he was not satisfied with the 
results and gave up the subject as one in which conclusions could 
not be assured. He was not a psychologist. He was a religious 

310 



CARROLL D. WRIGHT 311 

believer and accepted the existence of spirit, but not communication 
with the dead. All this was unknown to Mrs. Chenoweth. 

He was stated to have carried a powder in his pocket as a simple 
remedy for stomach trouble and which he took at intervals before 
his death. This is not confirmed. On the contrary, it seems not 
to have been true. But it is possible that it is a distorted account 
of a later incident which also was not true in the form that it ap- 
pears, but seems to have been a confused reference to what was 
true, namely, that he constantly used lithia tablets for stomach 
or other trouble. Then came the following. 

I see also a great pile of papers, some printed, and some compiled for 
printing and all in a stack on a table, a matter in which he was engaged 
at the time of his last illness. It looks like some work which was left him 
to do as a sort of referee. There is a large number of cases cited and 
instances named and figures and estimates given, and it is all before him 
for final summing up. 

Inquiry shows that Mr. Wright was engaged on the '' Century 
Book of Facts " a short time before his death, having finished it 
in January and died in February. None of these facts were known 
by me or by Mrs. Chenoweth. 

Immediately after this came a reference to agriculture, to a 
new building apparently connected with it and allusions to various 
interests in which he was engaged besides " his particular chair," 
and then a reference to statistics which were, in fact, a special line 
of work with him. The allusion to agriculture, however, seemed 
to the family to have no meaning but one of them happened to re- 
mark that he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Agri- 
cultural College in Massachusetts, and it is possible that it w^as this 
he was trying to say or mention, a view born out by the reference to 
" varied interests." The statement that " in his school there was 
much to do with the soil, agriculture and the like " was not true of 
the college of which he was President, but it was true of the college 
of whose Board he was a member. An Aunt A was mentioned 
that no one recalls or recognizes, but the name Adams given almost 
immediately was that of one of his friends. He was said to have 
taken a trip to New York a short time before his death. Inquiry 
showed that this was true. A statement about the relative f re- 



312 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

quency of his going to Boston and New York was true but not evi- 
dential, as it might be expected. Reference to his preference for 
Harvard over Columbia has no evidential meaning if verifiable, 
as no one recognizes any special reason for the statement. 

He was said to have had two rooms for his work. This was 
true of the college, not his home, and then a reference to a " glass 
of water as if he frequently kept one near him as he worked." He 
did keep a glass of water near for a lithia tablet when he wanted it. 
Some one by the name of S., said to have been near him, and for 
the name Sarah, might refer to his father's second wife whose 
name was Sarah. His deceased sister's name was Sophia. 

Some of the most complex and detailed incidents were un- 
recognizable and so left the collective mass of evidence somewhat 
weak. I found from interrogation of the daughter, however, that 
some things were recognizable by her that Mrs. Wright did not 
recall or recognize. The consequence was that I resolved on an 
experiment that would be almost as good as cross reference. I 
found the daughter was willing to take some sittings. She was 
married and this shut off direct connections in the name. I ar- 
ranged for sittings to be taken by a friend, not mentioning name, 
sex or relation to my work. I purposely arranged for the Star- 
light trance. Mrs. Chenoweth's regular work is done by this little 
control and it is oral, not automatic writing. I made the arrange- 
ments as if the sittings had no connection with this series of ex- 
periments and was to be away when the sittings were held. Mrs. 
Chenoweth had no hint of my interest in them. I arranged them 
as if they were for some stranger wholly unconnected with the 
present experiments and such was the impression that Mrs. Cheno- 
weth had. The lady came on the appointed day, giving no name 
and conducting the sittings with as much care and prudence as any 
scientific man would desire. I had given directions on that point 
and indicated the method to be used in avoiding betrayal of iden- 
tity or incidents by way of suggestion. The sequel showed that 
I hardly needed to give this advice, as she made an excellent sitter. 
The first two sittings show a repetition of some of the incidents 
which I received, reference was made to me in a way not usual 
with strangers at their sittings, Mr. Wright's name was almost 



CARROLL D. WRIGHT 313 

given, and at a later sitting of my own the lady present was said to 
have been Carroll D. Wright's daughter, which was true, though 
this might have been inferred from statements of the sitter. The 
incidents, however, communicated at the daughter's sittings are, 
many of them, much better evidence of identity than any that I 
obtained. 

In close and pertinent connection with the statement about his 
intellectual habits was a rather long passage about his spending 
time at the seashore for both work and rest and social intercourse 
with important friends. This was true, though the details are not 
given in a manner to impress the skeptic with their cogency. Then 
came the statement amid some general talk that he '' loved human- 
ity and was interested in the problem," and then the statement that 
his life was spent in the city rather than the country or the seaside 
and that he went back and forth from one to the other. This was 
recognized as accurate, though we can hardly make it evidential. 
In a few minutes came a more striking possibility. 

I see him with his clothes on; whether he passed away with his outer 
clothes, like coat and vest and those things. (Yes.) Anyway I see some- 
thing put on him, I can't tell you. I feel clothes on and I feel some one 
going into my pockets, as though there is an effort to see what is in my 
pockets, for something. Do you know anything about that?. 

(No.) 

Did he pass away with his garments on ? 

(No.) 

Well, I feel this, he was not taken sick was he, with his clothes on? 

(Well, he had them on when the doctor told him he had better go to 
bed.) 

This was followed up with a sort of explanation of the con- 
nection between the idea of dying in his clothes and what was ad- 
mitted by the sitter which may be explained in any way you please 
as subliminal talk. But the medium came at least near to hitting 
the idea admitted by the sitter after the main facts had been 
stated. 

The name Henry followed the reference and description of the 
child and it is not clear whether it has any important meaning or 
not. Certainly it was not evidentially related. It was indicated 
that he was outside the family and there was such a friend by that 



314 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

name outside the family, and there was good reason for mention- 
ing him, but the record does not indicate with any assurance that he 
was meant. The next incident following some general statements 
about his interest in this subject that are not important has some 
specific interest. 

Now do you know anything about a little thing that looks like a 
case? There are several little compartments in it. You know I see al- 
most like wood and little compartments, and up in those compartments are 
things that I can take up. You know they are Httle grains of something, 
like round flat things that if I dropped them they would drop down Hke 
peas or things like that, like little pebbles, but they are in compartments, 
as though they are things that he had worked over and had them to use 
for something. Do you know anything about this? 

(Why I don't seem to recall. You mean connected with his work?) 

Yes, they look like grains, you know, as though they are all separate ; 
they are larger than grains of sand and they look something like little pills, 
you know. 

(Yes.) 

Little pills, only dark colors. If they were white I would call them 
globules, but they seem to be dark and brown and different colors and none 
of them are disks. You know disks? 

(Yes.) 

Well, they are in different compartments, as though here 's a few, 
there 's a few and there 's a few, and I take them up. I don't put them 
together. I look at them, as though they are for a different purpose, but 
they come in a different part of his work. 

(His life?) 

His life. Did he ever study anything where he would have some of 
those little things in it? He was not a doctor himself was he? 

(No.) 

Well do you know if he ever knew a doctor who had these little things? 

(Yes, I think he was very fond of an uncle and studied with him.) 

[A little later after some non-evidential talk about the same incidents 
allusion was made to] a wooden box where they were in compartments 
before they were put into other smaller things, given out to the people. 

The very proximate character of this incident is clear in the 
daughter's note, which says : '* He studied medicine with an uncle 
who was a physician and later was in a drug store for a time. 
There he was also called Doctor." 

I think almost any one would recognize the description of a 
physician's case before it was admitted by the sitter and the co- 
incidence would not naturally be guessed in the life of Carroll D. 
Wright, which the admission of the sitter makes characteristic of 



CARROLL D. WRIGHT 315 

his early life. It refers as much to the identity of the uncle as to 
his own, though not adequate in either case to determine that iden- 
tity. 

This first sitting ended without any incident of more important 
note and in the second one, the next day, after the preliminary com- 
munications in getting adjustment, which were unevidential, and 
after an allusion to a lady who is recognizable as his mother-in- 
law, and the mention of an Elsie who was known, but without recog- 
nizable importance here, the following came at some length. 

Do you know anything about music that he would be interested in? I 
see a big sheet of music and I see all the notes and everything on it as if it 
were all printed, and I see him hold that in his hand. I don't know 
whether he made music, but there is something like tones, you know. 
He does n't seem to do it with his hands so much as he does to sing. Do 
you know if he sang? 

(Yes, he was very fond of singing.) 

[Then followed considerable talk about his unfinished life with vague 
allusions to music before the ideas drifted into his general topic and then 
came the following.] 

Well it seems as if he used to go somewhere where there was par- 
ticular music sung. I can't tell you exactly, but I see people standing up 
several of them, more like a group of people who express together, you 
know, like a choir or a quartette or a group of people who express music, 
and I see him going where he was looking right up at them, you know, 
listening to them. Was he a church man ? Did he go to church ? 

(Always.) 

Well I see him as though looking at a choir where I hear them sing 
and that is one of the beautiful parts of the service, and he says, * That is 
pretty good for me to say,' as though it meant something special when he 
said it, you understand. 

(Yes that is very good.) 

Of this the daughter says. " My father was very fond of music 
and sang in the church choir for eight years or more." He seems 
then to have had the retirement from the choir symbolically indi- 
cated in the picture of his looking at the choir while he is also 
represented first as in it. 

Allusion to a child and its being in church with him was not 
accurate. He had a deceased grandchild but they were never in 
church together while living. There followed an allusion to a 
woman with general description that could not be definitely iden- 
tified for the reason that, so far as the account goes, it might 



3i6 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

refer either to a sister-in-law or a mother-in-law, both of whom 
are dead and the person alluded to was definitely indicated as 
deceased. 

After the long effort to get the name beginning with E and 
ending with Elsie the following perfectly definite incident 
came. 

I see a chair and it has no rockers, but it is rather big and round and 
very comfortable, and it is a chair. It is not a Morris chair. It has got 
a round sort of a seat to it, and I see this man. I am trying to connect 
everything with him now. 

(Yes that is nice.) 

And I see him come in and sit down in this chair. It is so com- 
fortable. He throws back his head and sits there and rests. It seems 
as though I want to sit down and just gather myself a little bit, and as 
though I would rest before I go on to do something else, and this chair 
I think is in his own house, because I come right in. About the first 
place I go I sit down in that chair. It is n't up stairs ; it is down stairs. 
I come in and sit down in that chair and rest. He had the funniest little 
habit of coming in and sitting down where he was, as though he wanted to 
take a minute to get adjusted and then he goes on and it is what he 
wants to do. 

(Do you see any color in it?) 

Yes, brown, you know. 

(That is very good.) 

This was followed by reference to the associations of the chair 
and mention of the man's religious nature. The association would 
not be suggestive to those who did not know the man's habits. 
The daughter speaks of the incident in her note. 

A brown velour chair — rocking slightly on a stationary base — 
was very big and round and fitted his length exactly. It stood last in 
the library beyond the wide hall, inside as one entered and when he 
came in he generally took off his hat and coat, hung them up in the big 
closet and then sat down to rest in his own chair. It was not a Morris 
chair, but the arms were solid and it came around at the side just as he 
liked. He would read and then put his head back and rest as though 
he were dreaming, but with every faculty alert and then after he would 
talk either of what he had been reading or of something suggested by 
it. His life was one of service to humanity and he was deeply spiritual 
and religious in the highest sense. 

The following interesting passage came after the allusion to the 
chair which we have just described. 



CARROLL D. WRIGHT 317 

I wonder if yot know anything about some clothes. It looks to me 
like a black suit It is very, very dark and looks more like black than 
anything and I see him so — well I think it is fussy about handkerchiefs. 
I always want to be sure that I have some, some not one. You know 
what I mean. 

(Yes.) 

That I have got one here and one here. I want enough you know. 
And I see this suit, one that he had worn as if it were a suit for a special 
occasion, I can't tell you what, but it is one that he had worn in special 
ways and things he had done, as though he is put away in that. You 
know when his body is put away it is put away in a suit he had. It 
isn't like a new one or a robe or anything, but it is Hke a suit he had. 

The daughter replies to inquiry that '' he was not fussy about any- 
thing but liked plenty of fresh handkerchiefs and had extra ones, 
as I suppose all men do in their pockets." Of the coat incident 
she says : '' He wore his frock coat down town the last time he 
went in January, as it was his warmest one and he felt cold. It 
was washed and made all clean and neat before it was put on after 
his death. It was the coat he wore, of course when he lectured 
or dressed a little more than in a sack coat." 

The next incident is perhaps quite as definite and regards his 
watch which the details will explain. 

Well, let me see. There is a little black silk thing with a bit of gold 
on it. It looks more like a watch chain of black, you know. 

(Little fob?) 

Yes with a little bit of gold on it. It is very simple, very plain, but 
it is black and I know it is soft like silk. 

(Yes.) 

And he puts that right down here, you know, and on the end of it 2. 
watch. Do you know if he had one like that? 

(Yes.) 

Well, do you know his watch ? 

(Yes, perfectly.) 

Well, I see this watch as though it was a good one and that he had 
some time and I like very much. I don't know as that is already given 
away, but if it is n't, you know just where that is going, as though it is 
saved for somebody till they get big enough for it. 

(That is quite true.) 

The daughter's note is : " He had an old fashioned gold watch 
fob on a piece of silk ribbon. His watch was a special one he was 
very fond of. He carried it for many years and it was understood 
that it would go to his grandson named for him." 



3i8 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

The next incident is a characteristic of more than usual interest, 
as it is one that it would be difficult to ascertain in any normal way. 

I see another little way. It goes along with his not Uking the ceremon- 
ial and all that, but anything he dislikes is these. You know white things 
that go over beds, pillow shams? Well, those things bother him. 

(That is very good, very true.) 

I never heard any spirit say it before, but suddenly I see a bed, I see 
something like all fussed up : sometimes when he had to go away and sleep 
in other people's beds and it would be as though I like my own bed. 
If I could be at home in my own bed, no nonsense about shams. The 
very name is distasteful to him and all this lace business. He is thor- 
oughly a man. He likes comfortable things and pretty things and all that, 
but give me a bed with pillows. 

The daughter's note on this incident is as follows. " He was 
impatient always of fuzzy things on beds and going about as much 
as he did, often spoke of lace spreads, etc., that bothered him." 

The following incidents were evidently touched on in the auto- 
matic writing but not made clear enough for any possible recogni- 
tion. Later still I brought the subject up for clearer identification 
and obtained some interesting data. 

There is another thing. It looks to me more like a growing vine. 
There is something growing around a building. I am not in the same 
building where I was before where I saw the boys, but I am off here to 
another building that is a detached place, you know, detached house. 

(Yes.) 

And there is a little vine like woodbine or ivy something that grows 
up all over it. It is very pretty. There are two posts like a driveway, and 
two big tall posts. They are made of stone. It is a pretty place, you know, 
but it is gravel. I hear a carriage grind on the gravel and I step out just 
inside these posts, and here is a detached building, one that looks more 
like a home and I go in there and I am received in there. I call it in- 
side grounds where there are posts and a driveway and there is some- 
body there. I don't know who it is, but it seems like a man as big as he 
is, as though they are equals. 

(Yes.) 

Perhaps doing the same thing he is, only at another point, you under- 
stand. 

(Yes.) 

Well he goes in here, but it is the funniest thing, as though this vine 
is all turned red like fall. 

(Yes.) 

As though the autumn and it is one of the last trips he made you 
know, with those autumn things around, pretty, beautiful but I feel a 



CARROLL D. WRIGHT 319 

sense of the end. You know I don't know why I feel it, but I feel it at 
that place. Do you know anything about that? 

(Would that be his own home?) 

Did he have a house like that ? 

(Yes.) 

Did he have some vines growing there just inside the drive, like a 
drive in, and anything like woodbine? 

(I think it was on the veranda.) 

No, this is not the place. It is n't his home. It is away. Where did 
he come from when he came home, some trip he made. 

(He went to Washington.) 

I see a drive in and I see this vine and it is fall, you know. 

(Yes, it was.) 

It is fall time, because the reason I see the vine is to show me the 
time, and it is all red, autumn colors, and I see him come home from there 
and die. Do you know what I mean? 

(Yes.) 

I come home weary. That is the end; that is the last trip. He is 
telling you he would do it all over again. That is what I see as though 
that was almost too much for him. 

(That is true.) 

Having found a possible clue to the incident about the vine clad 
building I resolved to ask that Mr. Wright be given a chance to 
communicate and throw light on the matter. I therefore expressed 
the desire to have him, having had it strongly in mind the day be- 
fore I put it directly and during the beginning of the sitting of 
December 19th, 191 1. Apparently my desire was already known 
as the response was so prompt. The following is the record of 
what occurred, after I had expressed my wish to hear from him 
again. 

Well C. D. W. is here. 

(All right. He will remember describing or referring to a vine cov- 
ered house. The family does not recall it and I wish more about it. If 
he can tell where it is and what it is used for I may be able to verify it.) 

Was it a brick or stone house. 

(He did not say and I do not know, or if he said I do not recall.) 

He shows me a house in the South where he went not long before his 
passing where there were vines all about and where the effect was of 
green growing things about the place. It was there he was entertained I 
think and as he was recalling the past that picture came in vividly before 
him and may have been interpolated as a part of the communication. 

(I understand and can he say what use the house had?) 

It looks more like a building in which a part of the curriculum of 



320 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

the work was carried on. Do you know if he went to the South to 
speak to some educational workers where there was a set of buildings 
devoted to work. 

(No, but I shall inquire, though I know of a meeting not long before 
his death.) 

In the South. 

(That depends on the starting point and what . . .) [Writing began.] 

South of here and South of Worcester. (Yes.) But not far South. 
(No.) 

I go with him in a southerly direction and see these buildings, a group 
of them and among them this one with the vines. You know how much 
he was interested in all growing things and particularly in many kinds 
of vines. Do you know this. 

(No, I do not, and perhaps he can tell about the country about that 
building.) 

I will see. There are many trees and I see it is not a city like N. Y. 
[New York]. You did not have N. Y. in mind did you? 

(No I did not.) 

For it is not N. Y. which I mean but instantly when I made the 
comparison I became aware of his .interest in several N. Y. people and in- 
stitutions but the place to which I refer is not so large or thickly settled 
and is not a hilly country but rather pretty and has some special interest 
for him as he must have gone there with a specific work in mind. It has 
buildings of common interest. I mean like a community of interests but 
I do not know whether it is a university or not. I should rather think it 
something of that kind. Wait a little until I can see. Do you know any- 
think about a chapel where he went? 

(No.) 

I see a building which is like a church or chapel where there are 
many seats. I am inside and it is vacant, but it is a building used for 
audiences. Now he was entertained at a place. What is the W. for? 
Do you know? 

(No, I do not but go on.) [Probably Washington.] 

I see a large white house and it is so quiet and lovely about the place 
and there are people coming and going from other places but the house 
where he stays is quiet. It is strange that you do not know about this 
place in the South where he was entertained and where all this description 
has a bearing. It may be a place of which you are not aware now, but 
it is there that I find the vine covered house and I see some water 
and boats. It looks like fresh water more as if it were a lake of some size. 
It is all a very beautiful place and surroundings, but it is entirely on ac- 
count of engagements that he goes there for he always could be at home. 

(Tell more about that water and, if you can, the name of it.) 

I will do all I can, but I see several kinds of boats on it which leads me 
to the conclusion that it is used for all kinds of pleasure craft and dotted 
around the shores are houses and cottages and there are trees and hills 
back from it. It is most beautiful. Do you know if he went to a lake and 
was entertained there? 



CARROLL D. WRIGHT 321 

(No I do not, but you would clear the whole thing up by an initial of 
the name of the water.) 

Yes I suppose so and I have no idea why it does not come. It may be 
that he is not in working order this afternoon. He is talking with W. J. 
They are as usual most talkative and interested in each other. Just now I 
see a long bridge. It is rather more than the ordinary length and is of 
wood with some girders high on each side and the water is so clear and the 
reflections are as perfect as the things themselves. 

When the vine clad house was mentioned in the automatic writing 
I had hoped that it would prove a good incident. But no member 
of the family recognized it as having any meaning at all. When 
it was thus repeated with more detail it still had no meaning for 
them. As he had lived in Washington a number of years I sus- 
pected the Smithsonian Institution, but found that he had no office 
in it and no associations with it. He had been entertained at the 
White House, but Ex-President Roosevelt did not recall any enter- 
tainment of the man in the fall of 1908 when Mr. Wright attended 
the meeting of the Carnegie Board of Trustees in Washington. I 
learned from the head of the Institution, however, that Mr. Wright 
had remained at the New Willard Hotel during that period and 
where the Board met, I believe in those days. The daughter, how- 
ever, casually remarked that her father had been on the Board of 
the Hackley School at Tarrytown, New York. Inquiry immedi- 
ately showed that it had vines over it and I then ascertained that 
Mr. Wright had attended the Board Meeting of this School in the 
fall of 1908 a few months before his* death but did not attend the 
later meeting in January a few weeks before his death. I then 
visited the School and ascertained the truth of further incidents. 
The building is not covered with vines, as the communications might 
imply, but -has a number of vines at different places on it and may 
some day be covered. There is a little chapel near it in which Mr. 
Wright, according to the statement of the Principal, had talked to 
the boys. There is a building back of the main School edifice which 
resembles a laboratory very much but is the infirmary. The wooden 
bridge spoken of I could not find in my personal investigations, but 
the Principal writes me that there was such a bridge near the build- 
ing, but that it was recently removed. There are stone posts at the 
entrance to the grounds, but there are no vines near them or near the 



322 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

entrance. These are near and behind the chapel and are a very 
large collection of them, very noticeable to one driving in and up 
to the School. From points on or near the ground Haverstraw 
Bay which is an enlargement of the Hudson River, can be seen with 
the mountains beyond, making an extraordinarily fine view. Pleas- 
ure boats are numerous on the shores during the summer season. 

The building is white stone and apparently the allusion to *' W " 
had brought associations of Washington to Mr. Wright's mind 
and the White House where he had also been entertained by Presi- 
dent Roosevelt. This also has vines on it. But the other incidents 
do not apply. The Hackley School stands in a fine wood of large 
trees on one of the high hills of the Hudson River. The indica- 
tion that it was not hilly is therefore incorrect. But this is partly 
corrected when alluding to hills and trees in connection with the 
" lake," Haverstraw Bay. Whether the place should be described 
as hilly or not would depend on the amount and locality of the place 
gotten into the " mental picture " while communicating. 

The place was southwest from Boston, not *' South." He was 
entertained at the place, but the principal does not recall definitely 
whether he was entertained there at the time of the last Board 
meeting which he attended in the fall before his death in February, 
though he says : '' A rather unreliable memory on my part sug- 
gests the likelihood that his visit was in the fall of 1908." He 
adds also : '' I am sure that he did spend the night here at sometime 
within a year or two before his death." 

The Board meetings were held in New York, and hence the perti- 
nence of the immediate allusion to that city and friends there after 
saying that the building was not in New York but in the country. 

After the long reference to the vine clad building and indication 
that it was associated with the end of his life, he turned to some 
incidents associated with the funeral and which are, of course, rep- 
resentative of posthumous, or what Mr. Myers called post-terrene 
knowledge. 

There is another very sweet thing and it seems to be about his body. 
All over his casket, you know, everything is lovely there, but there is some 
thing all green, you know, like drapings of it. Funny thing but it is almost 
like laurel. 



CARROLL D. WRIGHT 323 

(Yes.) 

Were you there? 

(I was there.) 

Do you know anything like some green that seems to be half draped. 
Whether it is laurel or smilax, it is something that is all green and it is 
draped in a way from his bier. 

(Yes.) 

And then I see a great big wreath, oh an immense one, that is so big, 
but it isn't green like the rest, it is red. (Yes.) Flowers in it but it is 
red, red, red, like red leaves and then here and there roses, I think. 

(Yes.) 

They look like roses to me. There is something else with that. You 
know they are mixed in little clusters here and there, I think. That is, 
from somebody special, this big wreath, you know. 

(Yes.) 

And then I see there was something of flowers, looks like a basket. 
Do they ever send baskets to funerals? 

(Yes.) 

Well this is a tall thing. I don't know whether it is a basket or what 
it is, but it is hanging from here and a ribbon on it. It really is a basket, 
a basket of flowers. It seems as though that is from one person. The 
wreath is from more. It is from several, and the basket is from one. 
Funniest thing: And you don't seem to remember it. 

(There were many baskets, of course, many things.) 

Of course. A man like that would have. Wait till I see something. 

(Was there anything else over the casket that you see?) 

Do you mean a banner? Was that what you meant? 

(Anything like that.) 

Yes, there is something. I don't mean a flag and I don't know whether 
you mean a flag or not. There are two or three things. There is something 
like a spearhead that this thing is on. It might be a cross, but it is silk 
or satin. It is shiny and is not red, white and blue flag. It is some other 
color, and I should think that is a thing that he belonged to, as though it 
came like you might have college colors or a banner that belonged to some 
particular organization that he was in. 

(Yes.) 

That is what I see; like there is something there with blue or purple: 
it is like that, but a little gold around it too, and this spearhead thing. Do 
you know anything about it ? I think there was a flag there all right ; but 
that is not what I see. I see these other things first. I think there is a 
flag, but it is off the other way. I am not looking at that at all. Then I 
see a man who is saying something, as though it is a eulogy. That is the 
thing you say about him. 

(Yes.) 

Well, do you know a tall, slim, oldish man with a quiet nice face and 
gray hair, but very quiet and dignified, who said something about him? 

(Yes.) 

Wasn't that the man who stood up there. (Yes.) And he has a very 



324 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

beautiful quiet voice. This man was a friend of years. They didn't go 
into any extended eulogy. You know it was that came after, but this time 
it was a short one. You know that is what he would prefer. 

The daughter's notes show that this passage contains very strik- 
ing coincidences, perhaps of an unusually important kind. 

'' My mother's wreath of red calyx leaves was on the casket and 
all about were others, baskets, wreaths and flowers of all kinds and 
pieces. I think there was laurel and evergreen at the church. 

*' At the church, the four banners formed an unusual decoration. 
OVer the casket was the silk flag. At either side of the pulpit stood 
these flags or banners, each on a stick with the end forming a spear- 
point. The flag of the Loyal Legion of Honor, the flag of the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and I think the others. They 
were of silk and were most effective. These precious banners were 
in charge of some one sent by the Loyal Legion of Honor who 
never allowed them to leave his sight." 

There followed this a reference to the name Charles which is that 
of one of his dearest friends, and then an attempt to give his own 
name. I shall not quote it in full as it is too long, but sufflce to say 
that the " W " came easily enough and the last letter *' t." He was 
referred to as Doctor, but distinguishing this from a physician by 
saying he " was not a pill doctor." 

There were many other incidents of great evidential interest that 
were given. They would require too much space to present them, 
and it is hard to tell whether they are more or less cogent than such 
as I have given. One long set of messages evidently referred to 
Senator George F. Hoar who was the life long friend of Mr. 
Wright and who urgently advised him to go to Clark College. Mr. 
Wright's name was given in full and the pet name by which he 
called his daughter. A little bag which he had used in his early 
life was rather minutely described. Several names of relatives 
were given and more especially important were references to per- 
sons and incidents about which members of the family had to in- 
quire among remote relatives for confirmation. 

The facts that Clark College was not far — about 35 miles — 
from the home of Mrs. Chenoweth and that Mr. Wright was so 
well known to the general public enable doubters to raise the sus- 



CARROLL D. WRIGHT 325 

picion that at least some of the facts about him would either be 
public property or be easily acquired in various ways. This is true 
of the most general incidents connecting him with Clark College. 
But I have laid no stress on such facts and confined the interest to 
those little private incidents in his life that could not be obtained 
casually and many of them impossible without an elaborate detec- 
tive system which Mrs. Chenoweth, even if she were disposed, which 
she is not, could not conduct with manifold times the means at her 
disposal. Readers need have no scruples on this point. But read- 
ers must remember that at the sittings of the daughter there was no 
opportunity to know who was present or that the same personality 
was wanted to communicate that came to me. You may very well 
assume a spontaneously worked up product for me, though there 
was no reason for doing so, as I had no personal relations with the 
man. In any case you can only speak of subconscious work as 
conscious fraud will be given no consideration by me. 

The facts in many instances are especially good and absolutely 
all of them but his name and connection with Clark College were 
unknown to me, so that the toleration of anything supernormal in 
them excludes telepathy from my mind beyond question. I need 
not explain them here, however, as I am only concerned with the 
facts as they came from a man of national character. 



CHAPTER XIX 
EXPLANATIONS AND OBJECTIONS 

IT has been clear in my treatment of the data that my own 
tendency is towards a spiritistic explanation. Indeed my atti- 
tude on the subject is so well known that I have not tried to 
conceal my bias when discussing explanations, nor to practice any 
obsequiousness when weighing evidence. I have been expounding 
a theory which has long appeared to me to be proved, and I have 
been trying to present the facts in a way to increase the difficulties 
of skepticism in rejecting that conclusion. It has been apparent 
throughout that I accept the spiritistic explanation of the facts, 
though I have endeavored to do justice to opposing views. But I 
have tried also to show that there are facts which the opposing 
theories cannot explain, and from these facts the argument gains 
its force. 

But while I have presented the spiritistic hypothesis as the only 
one that even approximates an explanation, readers must not mis- 
understand the conditions under which I maintain such a doctrine. 
The prejudices and the ignorance of a century are organized against 
even the use of the term ; and all the illusions which that century 
of progress in physical science has produced, together with the 
barriers of all sorts of orthodoxy, scientific, literary, and esthetic, 
are resorted to in defence of a hostile attitude toward the doctrine, 
though religions and philosophies pretend to believe the same thing 
under another name. Whoever accepts the belief in spirits from 
scientific evidence has to face this situation ; and, if he has any re- 
gard for the good will of his neighbors, he will let the subject en- 
tirely alone. But cowardice is no safe refuge from facts, and there 
are people who know that truth and virtue are not under the do- 
minion of fashion and good taste. They insist on ignoring mere 
orthodoxies as such and on penetrating the disguises of ignorance 
aid custom to explore the despised territories of hard facts. They 

3a& 



EXPLANATIONS AND OBJECTIONS 327 

accept the leadership of truth whithersoever it takes them. Those 
who remain behind must accept the penalty ; but those who go for- 
ward must meet hosts of illusions about their beliefs. No one has 
more trouble in this respect than the believer in spirits, though his 
enemies want to believe in everything that the doctrine means ! 

Most antagonists to spiritistic hypotheses, whether religious or 
skeptical, have much the same conception of what a spirit is. The 
only difference between the two classes is that one believes and the 
other does not believe in the reality of spirit so conceived. It is pos- 
sible to show that both are under a delusion. The habits of thought 
prevailing in unscientific minds tend to make them trust in their 
imaginations, or in the interpretation of terms according to sense- 
experience. Hence most minds imagine spirits to be visible, tan- 
gible, audible beings, represented by apparitions, " materializations/' 
ghosts that haunt houses and provoke unpleasant disturbances, or 
by angels with wings and flowing robes, with all the trappings of 
their physical state, including houses, occupations, clothes, and all 
the accessories of economic life. 

This conception is so incredible from the point of view of tra- 
ditional philosophy, with its complete dualism or antithesis between 
matter and spirit, that it is no wonder that it excites ridicule. I 
shall say frankly, however, that there may be more truth in it than 
I know. I do not know enough to deny the doctrine that the spir- 
itual world is but the invisible side of the visible universe. For 
aught that I know it may be a complete ethereal replica of the physi- 
cal universe, or if " ethereal " is too suggestive of something else 
than matter, for aught that I know, the spiritual world may be 
merely a sublimated condition of matter, effected by changes like 
those with which we are familiar in chemistry. We know that 
matter can be altered from the solid to the liquid and from the 
liquid to the gaseous condition, and that as a gas it may become 
wholly non-sensible and lose properties which it had in solid form. 
For aught that I know spirit may be some such sublimated condition 
of matter. But I do not contend for such a doctrine. I am indif- 
ferent to it at present. It is no part of our present problem to 
determine what spirit is, but that it is. All that we mean is that 
something survives death, whether we finally decide to call it mat- 



328 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

ter, or spirit. The primary question is whether personal conscious- 
ness survives the body. So far as I am concerned here, spirit may 
be all that spiritualists claim, though it is hard to determine exactly 
what they claim. But when I defend the spiritistic hypothesis 
here, I am neither accepting popular spiritualism nor holding in re- 
serve any system of metaphysics, material or spiritual. 

What I contend for is, that there is satisfactory evidence for the 
survival of personal consciousness. But there is a tendency in aca- 
demic circles to insist that we must have a theory of philosophy 
to discuss, some metaphysical explanation of facts, before we admit 
the facts themselves. This is a delusion of the first order. We can 
never tell how anything happens until we prove that it does happen. 
We are not required to have explanations before we are assured of 
the facts. Indeed, science may not seek to go beyond the establish- 
ment of facts and may suspend explanations altogether. It must at 
least subordinate theoretical considerations to the proof of its facts. 

The only meaning that I give to the term " spirit " in the present 
stage of the work is, a stream of consciousness that may, in some 
way, subsist after the body has dissolved. How it subsists may be 
taken up in the later investigation of the subject, but it is not neces- 
sary to our problem that we shall define the nature of " spirit " in 
terms of its relation to matter. All that I contend for is, that cer- 
tain facts are evidence of this continuity, not evidence of what it is. 
In other words our scientific problem is evidential rather than ex- 
planatory. When we have assured ourselves that personality sur- 
vives, we may then take up the determination of the conditions 
under which it survives. At present we have only facts that indi- 
cate something supernormal, from which we infer the continuity 
of personal identity, though we do not know the conditions of that 
continued existence. 

This ought to make clear all that I mean by spirit. Indeed I 
have emphasized the conception in the introductory chapter and in 
the definition of the problem, so that it is repeated here only for the 
sake of laying stress on the limitations of our knowledge. 

The evidence I regard as scientifically proving survival, though 
it does not prove all that people believe under that name. There is 
no other rational explanation of the facts than the hypothesis of 



EXPLANATIONS AND OBJECTIONS 329 

survival; and the cumulative evidence is so strong that I do not 
hesitate to say that the proof is even equal or superior to that for 
evolution. As a theory of the gradual as opposed to the catastro- 
phic genesis of species, evolution is undoubtedly proved in every 
sense of the word scientific proof. To the same extent I think 
survival or the existence of spirit has been proved by the work of 
psychic research. The facts given in this volume are not sufficient 
evidence, and they are not given with the assumption that they con- 
stitute adequate proof. They are merely good illustrations of the 
nature of the evidence for supernormal knowledge of some kind. 
Indeed, the best evidence for survival can hardly be quoted, in many 
cases, without giving the entire record, with proper explanations of 
its psychological nature and its accuracy. The present volume is 
designed only to awaken interest; readers who are still doubtful 
must take the time and pains critically to study more elaborate re- 
ports. They will find it difficult to escape the conclusion that I 
have drawn. 

They still may not feel satisfied, if they are under the delusion 
that their preconceived ideas of spirit and its behavior must be sub- 
stantiated before they believe in its existence. But they are not 
entitled to draw from the facts any conclusion except what they 
indicate; and most, if not all, evidence for personal identity does 
not hold any hint of what the life is like or what spirits are like. 
Unless readers master that simple fact they are not qualified to 
study the subject. We are not upholding any preconceptions of 
spirit. We have to assume the materialistic point of view that 
there is no such thing, and then see whether our supernormal facts 
can be explained as functions of the brain. If we cannot give a 
materialistic explanation, which implies annihilation, we have to 
suppose that the phenomena imply the extension or continuance 
of the particular consciousness whose identity is established by the 
messages. All further questions as to the mode of existence must 
be determined by other methods and other evidence. 

The phenomena do not establish survival or the existence of spirit 
because they are " wonderful." The popular idea is that, if a phe- 
nomenon is '' wonderful " or inexplicable by ordinary causes, it 
must be evidence for spirits. It is not mystery that establishes the 



330 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

conclusion, but the perfect intelligibility of the facts. Supernormal 
experiences which do not indicate the continued personal identity 
of the dead might be explained by hypotheses as indefinite as the 
facts themselves; but when the circumstances are exactly what we 
should expect if a given person were communicating with us, the 
conclusion can hardly be escaped. The only circumstance that will 
give rise to resistance is prejudice based on the dogmatism of science 
about '' matter " and on the lack of respectability among the advo- 
cates of spiritistic theories. These are, in reality, more powerful 
influences than any logic or proved facts. But the phenomena 
have so accumulated that it will soon be the mark of extreme igno- 
rance to reject the conclusion. 

When we consider objections to the spiritistic hypothesis, I think 
we may say to-day that none are valid. Twenty-five years ago we 
might have entertained objections, but the work done in the interim 
has effectively removed them. While chance coincidence and guess- 
ing may account for many occurrences advanced as evidence for 
the supernormal, they have long been thrown out of court as ex- 
planations of vast masses of phenomena, and those quoted in this 
volume as evidence of the supernormal exhibit their own exemption 
from such suspicion. Secondary personality fares no better. 
While it limits evidence and excludes spirits as the explanation of 
certain types of facts, the contents of its phenomena can be traced 
to normal experience, while genuinely supernormal knowledge can 
be explained only by a source external to the subconscious. 

Telepathy is not a legitimate rival. I shall not discuss it here, 
after the exhaustive discussion given it in earlier chapters. I men- 
tion it as a whilom objection no longer cogent nor relevant. It 
has been eliminated for all who know anything about the facts and 
is pressed only by those who are too bewildered by the phenomena 
to make up their minds. It is noticeable, however, that telepathy, 
though probably a fact and a very limited fact, no longer plays its 
former role in the controversy, and represents an agency so little 
known that the burden of proof now rests on the believer in it rather 
than on the believer in spirits. The more rational theory must 
have the preference and telepathy has no rationality to commend it. 

But if there are no longer any real objections to the spiritistic 



EXPLANATIONS AND OBJECTIONS 331 

hypothesis, there are certain difficulties or perplexities for all of us. 
They are not objections to, but puzzles in the theory. They must 
be recognized despite the fact that the hypothesis has to be accepted. 
They may be summarized under two heads : ( i ) The mistakes and 
confusions in the communications and (2) the contradictions in the 
statements about the nature of the life after death. This latter 
question should be taken up in a later discussion of the nature of 
the spiritual life. Suffice it to say that no amount of contradiction 
in statement can be construed as an objection to a spiritistic theory. 
Spirits, like living people, may contradict each other, but the con- 
tradiction is no evidence against their existence. 

The confusions and mistakes in the communications, though they 
no more than contradictory statements militate against the exist- 
ence of spirits, do require explication if the phenomena are to be 
made intelligible. The difficulties which these mistakes involve are 
based solely on the assumption that, if spirits can communicate as 
they often appear to do, they ought not to make manifest errors 
in statement. This assumption, however, is wholly unwarranted 
and is founded on a superficial interpretation of the facts. The 
analogies of normal intercourse offer no standard for judging these 
phenomena. Careful students will detect the existence of condi- 
tions for communication between the spiritual and the physical 
worlds, very different from the conditions existing between living 
people. These conditions are so complex that the slightest knowl- 
edge of them will render intelligible the fragmentary nature of the 
messages and the mistakes and confusion. Indeed the wonder is 
that any communication whatever is possible. 

If we know the conditions under which messages come, we can- 
not wonder at the confusions and mistakes. There is first the 
conscious mind of the psychic, w^hether normal or in a trance. This 
mind has to report the messages and must color them in the same 
way that any second person would color a message sent to a friend. 
Then there is the subconscious of the medium, which will also 
modify messages, with greater liability to confusion and mistake 
than exists in the normal consciousness. Add to this again the in- 
fluence of the control's mind. All messages either come through 
the control's mind or are affected by it, in addition to the modifica- 



332 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

tions which communications must undergo in the psychic's mind. 
An additional source of confusion is the fact that many messages 
are involuntary; that is, unintentional on the part of the communi- 
cator. There is also interfusion of the communicator's thoughts 
with those of others near by as well as with those of the medium 
and the control. All these are still further complicated by the picto- 
graphic process, which represents the communicator's thoughts to 
the control and the psychic in a panorama of mental imagery, 
subject to interpretation by either or both. If the pictures are sym- 
bolic they may represent in the mind of the communicator an asso- 
ciation of ideas which are not connected in the mind of the living 
receiver or medium. Imagine what different accounts two persons 
would give of an ordinary panorama or procession! The psychic 
may hit upon incidents in the series of pictures, not intended by the 
communicator, and yet quite as good evidence, if verifiable, as any 
intentional picture. But the whole complex phantasmagoria ex- 
hibits incalculable opportunities for mistake. 

Under such complex conditions mistakes and confusions enough 
are sure to occur. So far from expecting messages to be simple 
and clear, the intelligent man, when he knows such conditions to 
exist, will wonder that any intelligible communications at all should 
come. But mistakes thus made do not invalidate the spiritistic in- 
terpretation; and, when the mistakes are either spontaneously cor- 
rected or can be naturally explained they constitute evidence for 
the theory rather than against it. 

The main difficulty raised is totally irrelevant. I refer to the 
trivialities of the facts advanced in proof of personal identity and 
the general vulgarity of an average spiritualistic performance. The 
offence taken at these is merely esthetic, not scientific, and hence is 
of no importance in a scientific investigation of the subject. 



PART IV 
MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS 



**■■ 



CHAPTER XX 
THE PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 

THE alleged physical phenomena of spiritualism consist of 
several types of real or apparent exception to the ordinary 
laws of matter. One of the most striking is telekinesis, 
the alleged movement of physical objects without visible normal 
contact, and without the intervention of any physical medium or 
agent. Raps, or the production of sounds without contact, is a 
second type. Levitation is another, but this is only a form of 
telekinesis. The production of lights is another. Alteration of 
weight by supernormal means is still another but infrequent type. 
Materialization is another type; but the term is so confusing that 
the alleged phenomena require separate treatment. 

Stories of such events have been told from time immemorial and 
are plentiful, it seems, among all races. Familiarity with records 
not often mentioned by historians shows that among the Greeks and 
Romans there was as much of this sort of narrative as in modem 
times, awakening the same interest, though the resistance to belief 
w^as less obstinate then than now, because minds were not so satu- 
rated with the idea of fixed laws of nature as they are to-day. In 
modern times the interest broke out anew with the work of the Fox 
sisters. The missionary zeal of their movement centered attention 
on them and their phenomena; their spectacular career also helped 
greatly to emphasize the impression. But the phenomena w^ere no 
different in kind from those known to the Greeks and Romans and 
to every race before and since their time. All this I have briefly 
touched upon in an earlier chapter. We are at present interested 
not in the history of such phenomena, but in their relation to the 
problem of psychic research. 

The extravagant interest in physical phenomena supposedly 
caused by spirits or some unknown force, would be strange were it 
not the natural heir to the traditional interest in miracles. The 

335 



336 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

scientific man cannot see why spiritualists attach so much value to 
physical phenomena as evidence for the existence of spirits. But 
the point of view is not difficult to understand. To the ordinary 
man all mental phenomena are equally mysterious, and he is slow 
to realize the exceptional character of any mental fact. Since all 
phases of mental life are inexplicable, telepathy or clairvoyance is 
no more to be wondered at than a funny dream. But these minds 
can easily perceive that certain physical phenomena are exceptions 
to their experience. They are familiar with the general laws of 
motion, especially with the law of contact; and, as they regard as 
a miracle anything that represents a violation of the law of contact 
as the cause of motion, they easily refer supernormal physical phe- 
nomena to spirits as a cause. This is the natural tendency of a 
mind brought up to believe in miracles. In the psychological field, 
telepathy and other instances of the supernormal are not to be spe- 
cially wondered at, as they are no more exceptional than other 
idiosyncrasies of mind. But it is otherwise with physical phe- 
nomena. The rising of a table without contact at once appears 
inexplicable by any ordinary laws of experience. Common minds 
can see the unusual character of such phenomena, and, being accus- 
tomed to find in Christian doctrine physical miracles cited as proof 
of divinity, they easily resort to the spiritualistic interpretation of 
levitation. They are not often nice in their application of explana- 
tions, and make anything mysterious a signal for the appeal to 
spirits. 

But they reckon ill with the problems of evidence. Levitation, 
raps, lights, and other physical phenomena are no more evidence for 
the existence of spirits than is the fall of a tree. The movement 
of a physical object through space without - contact is in no way 
evidence for the existence and action of spirits. It may be accom- 
panied by such evidence, but it is not itself this evidence. Proof of 
the existence of spirits requires not the mere occurrence of inex- 
plicable phenomena, physical or mental, but facts of a supernormal 
character, evincing the continued personal identity of the dead. 
The phenomena must be explicable only as the acts of intelligence, 
indicating the presence and action of discarnate beings, as displayed 
in the transmission of messages or in the production of phenomena 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 337 

that show purpose. This indication of purposive intelligence, not 
the mechanical movement of objects, constitutes the evidence. 
There is no scientific excuse for the spiritualistic contention that 
physical phenomena prove the existence of spirits. Unaccompanied 
by mental phenomena they are useless. For telekinetic phenomena 
are among the most common in nature — magnetism, wireless teleg- 
raphy, and gravitation are illustrations. Intelligent scientific men 
will admit the possibility of telekinesis; it is merely a matter of evi- 
dence, not of a priori limitations to nature. But they can still 
maintain that, while the occurrence of supernormal physical phe- 
nomena may be entirely possible or even proved, these alone are 
not evidence for the existence of spirits. 

The case might be very different if there appeared also mental 
phenomena, especially such as are unmistakably supernormal and 
reflect the personality of the dead. If the levitation of a table, for 
instance, were accompanied by mental phenomena involving the 
personal action of some one dead, it would have some interest for 
the skeptic asked to believe in the power of spirits to cause motion 
in physical objects. But if it occurred without indication of intel- 
ligence, incarnate or discarnate, it would be only a curious event. 

It is in reality the ensemble of phenomena, the complex situation, 
that has impressed the spiritualist. This situation usually includes 
the presence of mental as well as physical phenomena; this associ- 
ation, not the physical phenomenon, justifies the suspicion of spir- 
itistic agency. Unfortunately most people appeal to the physical 
'' miracle " instead of to the mental phenomena, which appear to be 
less miraculous. Though, taken alone, physical phenomena have 
no evidential import whatever, we have to discuss them, partly be- 
cause tradition has associated them with spiritism, and partly be- 
cause mental phenomena of much significance have often occurred 
in connection with alleged physical events of an inexplicable nature. 

If we should ever succeed in proving the existence of genuinely 
supernormal physical occurrences, definitely connected with super- 
normal mental occurrences, and so have reason to assign to both of 
them the same cause, we should have a result of very great cosmic 
interest. To find that extra-organic intelligence can move matter 
without the intervention of normal human agency, even though 



338 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

mediumship be usually associated with the movement, would be to 
raise the question of the relation of intelligence to all mechanical 
action. If we once establish the fact of telekinesis by intelligence 
alone — that is, the movement of inorganic objects by discarnate 
agencies, without contact, we open the way for considering the 
question of the priority of intelligence to all mechanical movement 
in the universe. The materialistic theory has so long accustomed 
us to think of physical movement as mechanically caused, and not as 
possibly caused directly by intelligence that we are not prepared 
to admit any but mechanical causes in the physical universe. This 
has been the tendency of philosophic thought from the time of the 
earliest thinkers of Greece. They sought to remove intelligence 
from cosmic action ; and, though they sometimes admitted the exist- 
ence of spirit or spirits, they relegated them to the intermundia, 
where they could exercise no influence on the course of physical 
events. But once let it be proved that the discarnate can be efficient 
to produce motion in inorganic objects, materialism will be forever 
dislodged from its stronghold. Consciousness will have been 
proved capable, in an extra-organic existence, of producing more or 
less direct effects on inorganic matter; and no one will be able to 
assign to this ability any limits save such as experience may define. 

This larger aspect of the question is the phase of real interest in 
the problem of telekinesis as associated with intelligence. But the 
prospect of accomplishing results that will illustrate or prove this 
larger view is very remote. We have hardly started on the way. 
We are still too doubtful of the occurrence of the phenomena in 
any form to begin drawing inferences from them. However, in 
the mental field, facts to prove the existence of spirits are multi- 
plying ; and, their existence once conceded, there will be more proba- 
bility of our discovering that they are influential in determining 
events. We may therefore soon be on the road to solving the 
larger questions of telekinesis. 

The historical records in support of supernormal physical phe- 
nomena are not very impressive, unless we except those of Robert 
Hare and Sir William Crookes. Robert Hare was professor of 
chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania. His volume on his 
experiments and inquiries has been quoted by spiritualists as more 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 339 

or less conclusive in their favor. But his mere academic authority 
is all that spiritualists have emphasized ; they have not been able to 
reproduce his alleged results. Moreover, examination of his work 
reveals the justice of Mr. Podmore's criticising it, at least of his 
accusation of defectiveness in the account of experiments and in- 
quiries. Mr. Podmore, however, was so obsessed with his belief 
in fraud that he could recognize neither its limits nor the significance 
of hysteria and other abnormal mental states in honest subjects. No 
doubt Professor Hare erred in the opposite direction, though this 
error may be more apparent in his writings than in his actual inves- 
tigations. Unfortunately the latter are so irnperfectly described 
that the critic is free to make all sorts of accusations that cannot 
be refuted if false, nor proved if true. Some of the apparatus he 
invented was good, but we know far too little about the exact con- 
ditions of his experiments. He merely states in a description of 
his apparatus that he succeeded in registering a pressure of eighteen 
pounds under conditions, as he thought, that do not permit of nor- 
mal explanation; but he does not describe insufficient detail the 
manner of experimenting. Like all investigators of that period — 
1850 to i860 — as soon as he was convinced of his theory he ac- 
cepted all sorts of phenomena and mediumistic statements without 
any criticism. He went elaborately into the revelations of another 
life, as if the mere fact that these revelations came from spirits 
attested their credibility. But he shows us no reason to be assured 
that many of the statements had any transcendental source what- 
ever. We may urge in his defence that at that time nothing was 
known about the subconscious. The most natural thing in the 
world, after being personally convinced of the honesty and veracity 
of the medium, was to take the communications at their face value, 
even though they might be unprovable and perplexing. He seems 
not to have thought of such a thing as careful sifting and criticism 
of the evidence for spirit existence, much less to have established 
any criteria for determining the validity of statements about the 
spiritual world. He cannot be quoted by any scientific or intelligent 
man in support either of the existence of spirits or, if they exist, of 
the truth of their communications. 

One circumstance, however, which Mr. Podmore quotes with an 



340 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

apparent sneer, is not indefensible. Professor Hare invented an 
apparatus for spelling out messages, in which the dial and hand 
were so concealed that the observer, but not the medium, could see 
where the index pointed. He records that results were more diffi- 
cult to obtain, and failures more frequent under these conditions. 
When the spirits were taken to task for these failures, they replied 
that, since the medium could not see the face of the dial and the 
index, the spirits had to see them through Dr. Hare's eyes. This 
reply Mr. Podmore evidently thought a preposterous subterfuge. 
But it is quite conceivable that the spirits must see what they are 
doing. It may be that they cannot always or easily see physical 
objects without the use of sensory organs. 

Strange as it may seem, I have some evidence that this claim is 
more or less justified. I have not proved it even to my own satis- 
faction. I have been too busy trying to get more important ques- 
tions solved and to secure evidence of survival rather than evidence 
of the character of intercommunication between the physical and 
spiritual worlds. But I have noted some important facts bearing 
on this very question. Their significance is determined entirely 
by the fact that supernormal information justifying the spiritistic 
hypothesis was obtained in connection with the phenomena which I 
shall here detail. 

( I ) At one time in my experiments with Mrs. Chenoweth I used 
a head-rest to support her head when she was in the trance. Her 
eyes were buried in the pillow. Once, when the automatic writing 
was going on and Dr. Hodgson was purporting to communicate, 
she turned her face over so that her eyes, though closed, were ex- 
posed to the light. The communicator, apparently not knowing 
what had happened, remarked that he could almost see. Supposedly 
the light penetrating the eye-lids had affected the communicator so 
that he could use the sense-organs. This incident, of course, is not 
conclusive, as we may explain it by supposing that the light passing 
through the eye-lids was appreciated by the subconscious imper- 
sonating the communicator. I do not dispute that explanation; it 
is probably correct enough. But it does not stand in the way of 
supposing that the discarnate, if it exists and is capable of using 
the nervous organism of a living person may have perceptions as 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 341 

claimed. At any rate, the incident quoted is of a character to sup- 
port that claim, if it were otherwise justified. 

(2) I have often noticed that one of the controls in the work of 
Mrs. Chenoweth, Jennie P., can always avoid superposing when 
communicating for herself; but, when she is trying to get messages 
from others, she has to be watched for this mistake, and I have to 
regulate the sheet of paper to prevent it. All the while, Mrs. 
Chenoweth is in the trance and her eyes are not only closed, but 
are often turned away from the paper. Superposition would prob- 
ably occur if any normal person tried to write at the same time that 
he had his head turned away in order to listen to some one talking. 
If communication involves the visual interpretation of symbols used 
by the communicator to transmit his thoughts or messages to the 
control, we can realize how Jennie P. has to act under the circum- 
stances. 

(3) More directly in support of the statement recorded by Dr. 
Hare is the following fact. Since the development of Mrs. Cheno- 
weth's trance into what we may call either a deeper state or a fur- 
ther dissociation of the subconscious, I have frequently noticed that 
I must keep my eyes on the sheet of paper to prevent superposition. 
If I turn away to reach a new pad or to make notes, superposition is 
sure to begin; I may prevent it by keeping my eyes on the paper, 
even when I do not have to move the pad in order to prevent the 
occurrence. Apparently my own visual picture of the paper is 
immediately transferred to the control and he or she can regulate 
the writing accordingly. 

To prove this contention will require much more evidence than 
I have adduced. It is my purpose here only to state a problem and 
to note that Dr. Hare has recorded a statement of some interest, at 
which we need not sneer, though I should have done so myself if I 
had been in the same position as Mr. Podmore and thousands of 
others during the earlier stage of the investigations. With the 
practice of restraint and tolerance, we may some day find a satis- 
factory explanation of apparent absurdities in many statements that 
have long passed as genuine communications from a transcendental 
world, even though we do not accept the revelations at their super- 
ficial value. 



342 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

The work of Sir William Crookes is more impressive. He was 
not himself responsible for the form in which it was published in 
this country. He wrote only brief accounts in the " Quarterly 
Journal of Science," in which he was conducting a controversy 
with critics of his paper, read before the British Association for 
the Advancement of Science, and these brief accounts were re- 
printed in this country without his revision or authority. Enough, 
however, was included to give a fairly clear idea of part of his 
experiments; those connected with the movement of physical ob- 
jects without contact and with increase of weight have never been 
satisfactorily explained. William Huggins, a scientist of no mean 
repute, witnessed some of the phenomena and attests them; but 
scientific men generally refused to accept the challenge to investi- 
gate with him. The reception of his report led Sir William Crookes 
to abandon the subject, though he has maintained the convictions 
which his work established, and reiterated them after more than 
thirty years. 

Strange to say, the incidents which spiritualists and the public 
love to quote most frequently, almost ignoring his best experiments, 
are those connected with alleged materialization. These, however, 
are poorly reported and their import depends solely on the authority 
of Sir William Crookes. While that must have weight, we should 
have had a detailed account of the experiments and results. 

The report on materialization is the least impressive in, the whole 
work ; but to the public it is interesting precisely in proportion to its 
incredibility. If emphasis had been laid on the experiments with 
D. D. Home, though suspension of judgment has to be applied to 
some of them, the work would have received a more respectful hear- 
ing. It is significant in this connection that niany years afterward, 
Sir William Crookes in his presidential address before the Society 
for Psychical Research, confessed to the wish that he had studied the 
mental phenomena before he announced his conclusions. If he 
had done so, he might have found the clue to his materialization 
phenomena. 

This discussion offers the opportunity to explain the confusion 
connected with this term. When we say " materialization," mean- 
ing the alleged appearance of a spirit, the scientific man understands 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 343 

us to assert that a physical body has been created apparently out of 
nothing, or, as some spiritualists maintain, out of the surrounding 
matter. In either case the hypothesis is, that a physical body is 
formed without any apparent source for the substance and proper- 
ties manifested. This conception is incredible. We have no prece- 
dent in scientific work for the sudden and apparently miraculous 
production of organic beings and their disappearance in a few mo- 
ments like the *' baseless fabric of a dream." The spiritualist may 
just as well admit the difficulties and not try to explain them by 
suppositions more far-fetched than the main theory. 

But I have observed many times that people in reporting mate- 
rializations do not mean the creation of physical organisms. They 
even speak of apparitions as " materializations " ; this usage shows 
what they really mean by the term. Apparitions are phantasms, 
not physical substance. They may be veridical, and prove quite as 
much as any materialization would prove, without the intellectual 
difficulties attaching to the materialization theory. If they are 
called phantasms or apparitions, though the description may be in- 
complete, it expresses a proved fact. Whatever other elements are 
present can then be the subject of further investigation. We 
should not ask the mind, especially the scientific mind, accustomed to 
employ its terms with great accuracy and clear definition, to believe 
in so improbable an event as the creation of matter out of nothing, 
or the formation of inorganic matter into organic and its disintegra- 
tion, independent of the usual process of dissolution. I have known 
instances of apparitions thus appearing in the presence of mediums. 
They occurred during the presence of Mrs. Catherine Paine Sutton 
with Mrs. Piper. They occasionally occur with considerable vivid- 
ness to Mrs. Chenoweth. They are a constant phenomenon with 
Mrs. Chenoweth when the pictographic process is employed for 
communication. But the phenomena are either mere mental pic- 
tures or veridical phantasms. The simplest course is to treat them 
as apparitions, acknowledging the possibility both of collective phan- 
tasms and of synesthetic apparitions. These, of course, are also 
hard to accept, but they conform to what we know of phantasms. 

When Sir William Crookes said that he wished that he had in- 
vestigated the mental phenomena first, he admitted the possibility 



344 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

that the phenomena of Katie King might possibly be brought under 
that classification, and if so, would be more easily credible. But 
incredibility apparently attracts the average spiritualist, who, in- 
stead of fixing his attention on the best attested accounts of Sir 
William Crookes, concentrates his interest on the least probable 
of the phenomena. We may well admit that something unusual 
happened, w^ithout accepting the first explanation that comes to 
hand. We have a right to pause before accepting so incredible an 
occurrence as that described, especially as no detailed account of the 
facts accompanies the statement and as Sir William Crookes has 
himself publicly stated that he is not responsible for the book as 
published in this country. 

It is to be hoped that Sir William Crookes has recorded the facts 
in full, and that they may some day see the light. Meanwhile we 
have only the letters to the ''Quarterly Journal of Science." We 
can describe only one of his experiments here, and even that cannot 
be made as clear as the printed account, because the complex appa- 
ratus employed cannot be here represented. The purpose of this 
experiment was to get evidence of the existence of raps and of their 
objective nature, whatever their source. Raps are often said to 
occur without contact of the hands or other physical object. Sir 
William Crookes sought to demonstrate that they do occur in this 
manner and are really objective physical phenomena. 

The apparatus contained an elastic membrane on which was 
placed a small piece of graphite, which would be thrown upward 
by the slightest jar to the membrane. The psychic was brought 
into the room without having the nature or object of the experi- 
ment explained, and was asked to place her hands on a board, that 
contact with the elastic membranes might be prevented. Sir Wil- 
liam Crookes held his hands on those of the medium, in order to 
detect any conscious or unconscious movement of her hands. Soon 
sharp, percussive raps occurred, and the piece of graphite was pro- 
jected upward from the membrane about one-fiftieth of an inch. 
The apparatus contained also a lever so arranged that its point 
would register in curves the amount of mechanical energy em- 
ployed. 

Perhaps physicists would find flaws in this experiment, and we 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 345 

should certainly want to be assured that tension of the lady's hands 
under those of Sir William Crookes on the board could not produce 
the effect. But this objection could not be urged against his ex- 
periment in adding to the weight of an object, which we cannot 
detail here. An experiment with D. D. Home and an accordion, 
even Dr. Hodgson found no means of explaining away. The 
accordior. was held in one hand inside a wire basket, so that neither 
the hand nor foot of Home could touch the other end of the instru- 
ment, which moved and played music. There were other experi- 
ments equally puzzling. 

But I do not cite them as absolute proof. They are of a type 
to challenge attention and to require further investigation. The 
scientific man is entirely within his rights in demanding that they 
shall be repeated, and Sir William Crookes himself recognized this 
need. The fundamental condition of scientific proof is not merely 
a crucial experiment, but a large number of experiments, conducted 
by different people in different parts of the world. Hence we 
quote Sir William Crookes's experiences, not as final proof, but as 
a challenge to experiment on the subject, and not to reject phe- 
nomena as impossible because they are unusual and apparently in- 
consistent with ordinary experience. Copernican astronomy was 
inconsistent with preceding theories and with ordinary observation. 
The motion of the earth round the sun contradicts the most natural 
inference from sense-perception. Telekinesis, especially since it 
has analogues in magnetism, wireless telegraphy, and gravitation, 
should not be regarded as a priori impossible. At any rate Sir 
William Crookes has challenged the scientific world ; and, as similar 
phenomena have been produced since his experiments, we are not 
in a position to ridicule his conclusions. 

Dr. W. J. Crawford, a man of some scientific standing and a 
lecturer in mechanical engineering in Queen's University at Bel- 
fast, Ireland, has performed a more recent series of experiments in 
levitation, under conditions and with results that make them of 
unusual interest. The description of his work has been published 
and is readily accessible. A family of spiritualists were conduct- 
ing experiments in the levitation of a table and in communication 
with the dead by raps. Dr. Crawford learned of their efforts and 



346 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

was admitted to the circle. The room was sufficiently light for all 
persons sitting about the table to be seen, at least after a little time 
when the eyes had become accustomed to the dimness. The sitters 
held hands; all were at least eighteen inches away from the table. 
Without any contact, the table rose into the air and remained poised 
there for some time, often as high as one or two feet. The sus- 
picion that some of the party, consciously or unconsciously, might 
have raised it by hands or feet was set aside by the following facts, 
(i) While the table was in the air. Dr. Crawford could walk all 
round it, except between it and the psychic. (2) He observed that 
she was not touching the table. Sir William Barrett, Fellow of the 
Royal Society and was professor of physics in the Royal College of 
Science in Dublin, reports his own observations on one occasion 
when he was permitted to be present. His statement is taken from 
his work on *' The Threshold of the Unseen " : 

'' I was permitted to have an evening sitting with the family, Dr. 
Crawford accompanying me. We sat outside the small family 
circle ; the room was illuminated with a bright gas flame burning in 
a lantern with a large red glass window, on the mantelpiece. The 
room was small, and, as our eyes got accustomed to the light, we 
could see all the sitters clearly. They sat round a small table with 
hands joined together, but no one touching the table. Very soon 
knocks came and messages were spelt out as one of us repeated the 
alphabet aloud. Suddenly the knocks increased in violence, and, 
being encouraged, a tremendous bang came which shook the room 
and resembled the blow of a sledge hammer on an anvil. A tin 
trumpet which had been placed below the table now poked out its 
smaller end close under the top of the table where I was sitting. 
I was allowed to try to catch it, but it dodged all my attempts in 
the most amusing way; the medium on the opposite side sat per- 
fectly still, while at my request all held up their hands so that I 
could see no one was touching the trumpet, as it played peep-bo 
with me. Sounds Hke the sawing of wood, the bouncing of a ball 
and other noises occurred, which were inexplicable. 

" Then the table began to rise from the floor some eighteen inches 
and remained so suspended and quite level. I was allowed to go up 
to the table and saw clearly no one was touching it, a clear space 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 347 

separating the sitters from the table. I tried to press the table 
down, and though I exerted all my strength could not do so; then 
I climbed up on the table and sat on it, my feet off the floor, when 
I was swayed to and fro and finally tipped off. The table of its 
own accord now turned upside down, no one touching it, and I tried 
to lift it off the ground, but it could not be stirred, it appeared 
screwed down to the floor. At my request all the sitters' clasped 
hands had been kept raised above their heads, and I could see that 
no one was touching the table — when I desisted from trying to 
lift the inverted table from the floor, it righted itself again of its 
own accord, no one helping it." 

I am not concerned with any explanation of these facts. Let each 
reader apply his own hypothesis. But Dr. Crawford performed 
further important experiments which help to show the genuineness 
of the phenomena. He weighed the table and also the medium. 
Then he placed the medium on scales while the experiment with 
levitation was made. While the table was in the air, all of its 
'weight, except two ounces, was transferred to the medium on the 
scales, though she was not touching the table. He then placed one 
of the other sitters, slightly psychic, on the scales, and accounted for 
the remaining two ounces. He then placed scales under the table ; 
when they were under the center of the floating table, the scales reg- 
istered appreciable weight, though the table was not touching them. 
He noted also that, when a light cloth was placed under the scales, 
'hardly any levitation occurred. He put a dark cloth under the 
scales, and the levitation became normal. He found that he could 
throw light from a bull's-eye electric lamp upon the top of the table 
without disturbing the levitation; but, if he threw it under the 
table, the latter immediately fell to the floor. Hence in these ex- 
periments he found that light prevented the occurrence of the phe- 
nomena. I found this to be true also of the phenomena of Miss 
Burton. The most obvious explanation is, that the light prevented 
playing the trick; but the observer was able to see that no hands 
nor feet were in contact with the table. 

The transfer of the weight of the table to the medium would be 
quite in accord with well-known laws of mechanics if any visible 
energy extruded itself from the body of the medium and raised 



348 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

the table. This is the theory that Dr. Crawford, being convinced 
that there was no physical contact, advanced. The experiment 
should be repeated, before the scientific w^orld can be impressed, 
but the authority for the facts is not to be summarily dismissed. 

A later and very important experiment was performed by Dr. 
Crawford. He made a table with four small wings attached by 
a hinge to a central piece and resting on springs which, when the 
hands of four persons pressed as much as two pounds upon them, 
would cause metallic contacts and the ringing of a bell. The whole 
was suspended three or four inches from the floor to scales at- 
tached to the ceiling. Under these conditions the scales registered 
as much as 26}^ pounds more than the weight of the table with- 
out the ringing of the bell. That is without a pressure of two 
pounds by the hands the table registered 26^ pounds more than 
its own weight. 

The experiment is important as showing that unconscious 
muscular action will not account for the whole result. We may 
explain it as we please. The fact establishes limits to the explana- 
tion by unconscious muscular action in such cases, though it neither 
excludes it nor prevents the hypothesis that external influences may 
even affect unconscious muscular action. 

My own experience with physical phenomena has been limited to 
raps and lights. I had a very striking series of experiments with 
a young lady some years ago. She was not a professional. All 
that she could do at that time was to produce raps and spell out 
messages by means of raps, and, by the same means, answer " Yes " 
and " No " to questions. 

Her physician brought her to me at a city club where she had 
never been before. I first asked for raps on different sides of her 
chair ; these were produced. Then I took her to a very large table, 
on which I had her place her hands. Very distinct raps were heard 
on the table, though no motion of her hands or fingers was observ- 
able. When I put my ear to the table, while still watching her 
hands, I could feel the vibration of the table as well as hear the 
raps. I then had her move her hands, one at a time, from the table, 
and saw that her feet did not touch it. The raps continued as 
before and the vibration in the table was perceptible. Having heard 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 349 

that she had made a piano-string ring, I took her to the piano. The 
piano was closed; she sat down near it as if to play, and in a few 
minutes loud raps were audible in the piano, making the string or 
wire ring. I then asked her to remove her hands one at a time 
and to put her feet back from the piano. She did so, having her 
feet as much as eight inches distant from the piano and her hands 
more than a foot. The raps and ringing of the string went on 
as before. All this was in broad daylight. There was nothing to 
hinder observation. \ 

I arranged to meet her again at her uncle's house, in order to try 
some further experiments. After getting raps under her feet, I 
had her stand on a very thick cushion. When she was standing 
on the cushion, which was at least six or eight inches thick, the raps 
occurred exactly as before, with the same quality of sound. If 
made by the joints, the raps would have been muffled when the feet 
were on the cushion. I then had her stand with a foot on each of 
my hands, which rested on the cushion, and the raps occurred ap- 
parently on the floor, with the same quality of sound as when her 
feet were on the floor. I then tried the steam radiator some dis- 
tance away, and the rap had a metallic ring, as if on iron. I then 
tried the piano experiment again. This time I had her hold her 
hands on a large book of music, on which were a dozen or two 
dozen sheets of music. The piano was closed. The raps were 
very loud, and made the string ring so that the sound could be heard 
perhaps a hundred feet away. I again had her remove a hand at 
a time and stand away from the piano. Though not quite so loud, 
the raps continued as before. 

Though we might suppose that there was some apparatus on the 
body for making raps like those on the floor, we cannot so easily 
explain the ringing of the piano strings without any contact. I had 
no means of applying mechanical tests to the case. I needed appa- 
ratus for excluding the hypothesis of mechanical means concealed 
on the body. But in the absence of opportunity for such tests, I 
had to vary the experiment so that whatever hypothesis applied to 
one instance would not apply to another. The results favored 
the acceptance of the genuineness of the raps. 

I got raps with Miss Burton also, while she was holding both 



350 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

hands and feet away from the table. Moreover, some of the raps 
under these conditions were not on the table, but on the window- 
sills ten feet distant. On one occasion the raps sounded on the 
window-sill, which was about eight feet distant and in the light. 
I then stood near the window, within a foot, and the raps were re- 
peated many times, while Miss Burton, in a trance, was six or eight 
feet distant, in the light, not moving her hands. Questions were 
intelligently answered by these raps ; by them we were even directed 
how to manage the girl in the trance when one of the personalities 
accidentally got " locked up," as it were. 

I have given elsewhere a detailed account of the production of in- 
dependent lights by Miss Burton. It is too long to here quote in 
full. After taking every precaution against her having apparatus 
about her person for making lights, and while holding her hands, I 
saw very large lights. They were of a kind that cannot be made by 
either phosphorus or electricity. The conditions excluded artificial 
methods. It is very probable that some, but not all of them oc- 
curred on the tips of her fingers. Some were six feet distant, as 
the illumination of a phonograph showed. 

Later I received messages by means of these lights. The mes- 
sages were written in letters of fire on the air in pitch darkness 
and gave cross-references with other psychics. They had to be 
read sometimes a letter at a time, and repeated until I could be 
certain of them. 

Professor James reported an instance of physical phenomena in 
an article published in the " Journal " of the American Society 
(Vol. Ill, pp. 109-113). He witnessed, in a private circle of peo- 
ple, a brass ring moved without the contact of any hand. The 
details cannot be given here. The case rests on the authority of 
Professor James. 

I have said nothing of the Palladino case and shall not quote it, 
as the public has long accepted the verdict of some investigators in 
this country, among them Professor Muensterberg, who condemned 
the case as fraud. I think they had no evidence of fraud; but I 
hold this opinion because I should treat the case from the standpoint 
of hysteria, which, though it furnishes a normal explanation, ex- 
cludes fraud. Palladino should have been studied, as Miss Burton 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 351 

was, from the point of view of abnormal psychology. In contra- 
diction of the verdict in this country, the English Society obtained 
striking results in levitation, and other investigators found mental 
phenomena of some interest, with, in one or two cases, significant 
apparitions. Continental investigators also vouch for genuine 
physical phenomena in her case, though admitting that she some- 
times practised fraud. I shall not defend the case here, in as much 
as public opinion generally accepts the verdict of trickery. I may 
say, however, that one of the men who signed the negative report 
did so under protest; another confessed to me that he had witnessed 
phenomena in the experiments not so easily explained ; and one dis- 
tinguished scientific man stated privately his personal conviction that 
some of the phenomena were genuine. The case, however, is too 
debatable to be used in evidence of supernormal physical phenomena. 
I can only repeat in conclusion that physical phenomena taken 
alone are not evidence for the existence or the action of spirits. 
At best, when taken alone, they only disprove certain claims about 
the limitations of nature, or prove the possibility of motion without 
normal contact. The association of mental phenomena or intelli- 
gence with them, supernormal knowledge evidential of transcenden- 
tal agencies, would give them value as evidence for spiritism, and 
would also suggest radical modification of our conception of the 
relation of intelligence to the physical world. But this is not the 
place to dwell longer on that aspect of the problem. We were 
obliged to consider physical phenomena because of their traditional 
connection with psychic phenomena and research. They have still 
to receive as much confirmation as the mental phenomena have ob- 
tained, and this confirmation will probably not be forthcoming until 
laboratory methods can be applied to them. 



CHAPTER XXI 
MODE OF LIFE AFTER DEATH 

THE general public has been led by psychic research to hope 
that we all survive death, and it has tolerated our labori- 
ous and tedious investigations with the expectation that 
we should soon announce our conclusions about the nature of an- 
other life. But no word has come from investigators to give assur- 
ance of anything except that we survive. It is the character of 
the future life, however, that interests most people far more than 
evidence of continued existence without any information as to what 
it is like. When the assertion is made that we live after death, the 
average man wants to know what that life offers in the way of en- 
joyment. 

But those who look at the subject in this way understand neither 
the scientific problem nor the difficulties in the way of satisfying 
their desires. The evidence which proves the fact may not reveal 
a single feature of its nature. We simply observe facts which can- 
not be accounted for by ordinary explanations. Supernormal 
knowledge obtainable only by the continued activity of deceased 
persons justifies the inference that consciousness continues, but does 
not reveal the nature of the life thus implied. The problem of de- 
termining this nature is very complex, and no hasty demands can 
be made upon the scientific man to satisfy the natural desire to know 
what the transcendental world really is. 

It is sense-perception that gives us a clear idea of what reality is 
or appears to be in normal experience. We react to physical stimuli 
affecting the sensory end-organs. These experiences attest for us 
the existence of an external physical world, even when they may 
not reveal its true nature. Whatever theories we may hold about 
sense-perception, it is the means of learning that we have to reckon 
with something else than ourselves and is the only means of inter- 
communication with one another. For all practical purposes, it 

352 



MODE OF LIFE AFTER DEATH 353 

serves to define the nature of reality, though by that nature we 
may mean no more than uniformity of effect on the sense-organs. 
Its constancy and our dependence on it for our adjustments in Hfe 
make sense-perception the standard of our ideas, especially of such 
as can be communicated to other men. All conceptions that have 
no such reference are considered subjective or abstract. Ideas 
not expressible in terms of sense-perception are vague and not 
communicable to others. Most people, when listening to statements 
about a future life, must naturally try to conceive or picture it by 
means of sensory images, which make it intelligible to them. The 
Book of Revelation, for instance, which gives at least one form of 
the Christian conception, describes the spiritual world in terms of 
sensory pictures of physical realities. Even though we try to 
interpret the representation as symbolic, the details of the descrip- 
tion are dependent on material analogies. The doctrine of the 
physical resurrection assumes that the spiritual world is like the 
physical. But the philosophic mind can never be made to believe 
this. To it the spiritual is the antithesis of the material. It even 
goes so far as to deprive spirit of every attribute of matter, leaving 
it a spaceless point of force. This theory is neither intelligible nor 
interesting to the average man, who conceives all reality by means 
of sensory images. A spiritual world that is not a " world " at 
all, but the absence of everything that constitutes what we call a 
world, does not appeal to him as worth either proving or having. 
That is to say, the tendency is to conceive the spiritual world as 
resembling the physical, even when we actoowledge that it is differ- 
ent in certain fundamental aspects. 

The paradox of the ordinary view of a spiritual world Hes in 
definition of spirit as opposed to matter, while at the same time the 
spiritual world is described in terms of that very matter which has 
been excluded. Such a view offers a good butt for ridicule ; often 
the accounts of life in a spiritual world include so complete a 
duplication of all that goes on in the physical world, when we are 
supposed to have been divested of the conditions that made such 
aids necessary, that the skeptic may be excused for his contempt. 
He takes the antithesis between matter and spirit in earnest, while 
the believer does not. When we are told that spirits wear clothes. 



354 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

partake of banquets, have the same vocations there as here, are 
teachers, artists, manufacturers, merchants, and perhaps farmers, 
we are Hstening only to the logical consequences of making the spir- 
itual world exactly like our own. But such economic arrangements 
are superfluous when we are rid of the body. Why all the useless 
machinery of an earthly life when it serves no imaginable purpose 
in a " spiritual " world ? The accounts on these points are not al- 
ways consistent. Some deny the existence of any conditions such 
as I have mentioned, and others tell us that we can form no con- 
ception of the future life. 

We may say, however, that it is much easier to defend the physi- 
cal view of the spiritual world from the standpoint of physical sci- 
ence than is at first apparent. Physical science with all its boasted 
dependence on sense-perception for its standard of reality pays no 
attention to this standard when it seeks explanations. It deals with 
supersensible realities quite as extensively as does theology or reli- 
gion or spiritualism. Its atoms, ions, electrons, corpuscles, ether, 
X-rays, N-rays, and even the vibrations supposed to cause light, are 
as unrepresentable in sense-perception as spirit can possibly be to 
any one who refuses to conceive it in terms of sensory properties. 
The real physical world of the scientists, though it is called *' mat- 
ter," is quite as truly beyond sense-perception as spirit is. The 
original notion of matter is of a substance which affects the senses. 
Atoms, ions, and electrons are not sensible objects of knowledge. 
Why, then, are they called matter? 

The fact is that very soon in its development physical science ex- 
tended its conception of matter to include supersensible forms. 
The atomists set up the atoms, the earlier thinkers set up elements 
which were only adumbration of the atoms. Though the atoms 
were no more the objects of sense than are spirits, yet because they 
were supposed to comprise complex sensible wholes, organic or 
inorganic, bcause they were regarded as the material cause of what 
we can see or feel, the '' stuff " out of which these things were made, 
the term *' physical " or '' material " was applied to them. From 
that time on science had the ineradicable habit of including the 
supersensible in the conception of matter as well as of spirit, though 
it continued its hostility to the latter i 



MODE OF LIFE AFTER DEATH 355 

Now if there can be a supersensible world of matter why may 
there not also be a supersensible world of spirit? The very phi- 
losophers who thus extended the conception of matter held that 
spirit was itself a fine form of matter; they simply regarded it as 
a supersensible type of matter. It was much later that the differ- 
ence between matter and spirit was developed into a complete 
antithesis. 

This antithesis was probably occasioned by the change in the 
definition of matter. The extension of the term to cover super- 
sensible realities at the basis of the sensible made it necessary to 
abandon sensible qualities as part of the definition, for all but prac- 
tical purposes. Hence to the modern physicist matter is that which 
manifests inertia, gravity and impenetrability. These properties 
are supposed to apply to its supersensible as well as its sensible 
forms. After this conception of matter was accepted, spirit lost 
its ancient meaning of a fine form of matter and was described by 
qualities that bear no resemblance to those of matter. In the con- 
ceptions of Leibnitz and Boscovitch it is spaceless and character- 
ized only by intelligence or consciousness. This radical dualism, 
not characteristic of ancient thought, is what has made incredible 
the statements in which a spiritual world is given material charac- 
teristics and habits of action. The advocate of spirit is perhaps as 
much to blame as his opponents for this predicament. At any rate 
it arose, and involved the difficulty of believing any description of 
a transcendental world that is only matter disguised and yet is called 
" spiritual," when the spiritual supposedly has none of the qualities 
of the material. The mere acknowledgment of supersensible real- 
ity, therefore, does not imply the spiritual, if so extreme a concep- 
tion of it be taken. Yet it opens such a vista of possibilities that 
scientific and materialistic dogmatism has no ground for assurance 
on its side. When matter can assume supersensible forms — that 
is, lose such properties as make it accessible to sense-perception — 
may it not further change its form so as to lose even those proper- 
ties by which science now recognizes it even in its supersensible 
forms? May there not exist either a kind or a condition of matter 
in which it may lose inertia, gravity and impenetrability, or any one 
or two of these properties, and may manifest consciousness? I am 



356 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

far from believing this theory, as there is neither evidence for it 
nor justification in the mere desire to save spiritistic philosophies. 
But I am not so dogmatic as to say that it is impossible. We merely 
know that analogies to this transformation exist in physics and 
chemistry, and we may keep our minds open to such possibilities, 
if qualitative unity in nature be required. The fact is, however, 
that we do not require any such unity. We do not know the limits 
of the multiplicity of nature. It is only the desire for what is 
called monism that leads men to eliminate spirit from nature. But 
there is multiplicity enough within every system of monism, ma- 
terialistic or otherwise, to include all that goes by the name of 
spirit. 

The conception of spirit by radical dualism as the opposite of 
matter, tends to make us think that matter and spirit cannot exist 
side by side nor interact. Even the ancients took this position, 
though perhaps for other reasons. The Epicureans, though mate- 
rialists, admitted the existence of the gods, but placed them in the 
intermundia where they could exercise no influence nor causal 
action on the course of nature. The Epicurean theory of ** mate- 
rial causes " eliminated mind as a cause of anything, cosmic or 
individual. Other philosophers placed mind back of the cosmic 
order, but postulated an eternal substance besides mind. The ma- 
terialists who admitted the existence of mind or soul, gave it neither 
causal action on the body nor survival after death. How they could 
compass its destruction consistently with their theory of the per- 
manence of other things is not easy to understand. 

Modern materialism cut the Gordian knot by abandoning the 
existence of soul and explaining its apparent activities as functions 
of the brain. But it gives no further definition of consciousness; 
it does nothing to reduce it to physical types ; it leaves its nature as 
mysterious as before. There are, then, at least two and perhaps 
three considerations which may be urged upon physical science to 
show the possibility of a spiritual world like the physical world we 
know, though not wholly described in terms of our sensory life. 

There is, first, the concession of a supersensible world even of 
matter. 



MODE OF LIFE AFTER DEATH 357 

There is, second, the fact that even materialism has to admit the 
existence of consciousness as an irreducible phenomenon, though 
only as a function of matter, and thus assumes that something dif- 
ferent from matter can exist side by side with it. It concedes that 
matter can be known by consciousness and yet not participate in its 
nature ; that is, not have the properties by which matter is known. 

A third and more important point of view is the following: If 
we have evidence enough to justify the belief that consciousness 
survives death, we prove at the same time that consciousness or 
the soul existed side by side with matter before death. That is, 
the physical world is not incompatible with the presence of a soul 
whether defined as a fine form of matter or as the absolute antithesis 
to matter. 

Now in the present discussion the existence and survival of a 
soul is taken as scientifically proved. We need not determine its 
nature in relation to matter. The fact remains that consciousness 
is not a function of the brain, that spiritual realities exist in the 
present physical order. Death then may be only the separation of 
the spiritual form from the sensory form of the physical, or the 
sensory manifestation of the physical, and the soul's environment 
after death may be the same physical world in its supersensible 
aspects. That is, the spiritual world may be like the physical with- 
out being any more accessible to sense-perception than the super- 
sensible world of physical science is now. 

Now we come to the experiences which at least appear to point in 
just this direction. These are of two types: (i) apparitions, and 
(2) mediumistic communications. Apparitions represent spirit in 
the spatial form of physical reality. They probably gave rise to 
the Epicurean doctrine of the '' ethereal organism " and the Pauline 
" spiritual body," and the " astral body " of the theosophists, though 
this last term is sometimes given a more technical meaning. But 
they imply a reality in certain respects like matter, though not visible 
to normal sense-perception. The natural interpretation is, that we 
see spirits when we see apparitions. If we accept that interpreta- 
tion, there at least seems to be a decided resemblance of the spiritual 
world to the physical, even in the very nature and form of spirit 



358 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

itself. In support of this theory are frequent statements through 
mediums, which may not be conclusive, but have weight and make 
it imperative that we should investigate their meaning fully. Both 
of these sources imply that the spiritual world is like the physical, 
at least in its form and appearance, though it may differ from the 
physical world as known to the senses, as much as the supersensible 
physical world differs from the sensible. It may thus be a world 
in which the supersensible is without inertia, gravity and impenetra- 
bility, and yet has the apparent form of matter. 

The only difficulty in urging this view is that many apparitions 
are simply phantasms produced either by telepathy between the 
living or by telepathy between the dead and the living. Medium- 
istic communications, whether conclusive or not, are more cogent 
as evidence. But when we consider that a pictographic process is 
the frequent or constant method of communication from a trans- 
cendental world, and that the interpretation of the mental pictures 
by the subconscious minds of the mediums may distort their sig- 
nificance as representations of spiritual realities, we may have to 
suspend judgment. 

But phantasms and appearances represented in mediumistic mes- 
sages, regardless of supposed distortion in their transmission to 
us, may still correctly represent the nature of a spiritual world, 
as the image on a photograph plate or the retina represents the 
object producing it. 

I am far from regarding all this argument as proof of the doc- 
trine, but it clears away the perplexities which attend the radically 
dualistic theory. If apparitions and mediumistic communications 
attest the existence of spirit, and if we are willing to recognize 
the possibility that the apparitions correctly - represent reality, we 
may then have recourse to other methods for ascertaining how 
far the resemblance to the physical world extends. We raise no 
questions whether spirit is material or immaterial. We decide 
first that it can exist independently of matter as we know it sen- 
sibly, or even supersensibly, and then investigate in other ways its 
further nature. For all that we know, therefore, the next world 
or life may be very like the present one, despite apparently very 
radical differences. No man is in a position scientifically to deny 



MODE OF LIFE AFTER DEATH 359 

such a possibility. The scientific evidence for the existence of 
spirit establishes such a world, whether we chose to regard it as 
objectively similar or dissimilar to our physical w^orld. 

We may conceive the next life, then, as having the same physical 
cosmos to deal with, but as not perceiving it in the same way. The 
spiritual world may be simply the supersensible side of what is now 
sensible to us. How we may be related to it as we are to matter 
in our physical embodiment is not conjecturable, as facts to indicate 
the relation have not yet been discovered. But it is entirely con- 
ceivable that it should be the same world and yet not appear to 
be the same, since the stimulus on spirit after death may be very 
different from present stimuli on the physical sense-organs. It 
may be the same world even without our directly knowing it at all, 
though existing in it; for only one aspect of it appears to us now. 
The soul's activities may be more active or creative in the spiritual 
than in the terrestrial life. But we do not know. There are many 
possibilities which await further investigation. 

But there is one more important objection or difficulty with w^hich 
we have to deal: the contradictions in the messages descriptive of 
the future life. Though they speak of it as if it were the same 
physical world as that known to sense, hardly any two writers or 
communicators represent it in the same w^ay. One may tell us 
that spirits wear clothes and another may modify this statement 
by saying thai the clothes are " creations of thought." One repre- 
sents the dead as living in houses, and others deny that they do so, 
while still others mediate between these two extremes by making the 
houses products of thought or purely imaginary. Some tell us 
that we could not understand any statement about the spiritual 
world. All these contradictions imply either differences of opinion 
about the other life or the distortion of messages by the subcon- 
scious of the medium, or perhaps both combined. In any case, the 
statements are so different and apparently so contradictory that we 
cannot unreservedly trust any communication as correctly des- 
scribing the nature of that life. 

But there is a way to establish unity in this apparent chaos of 
inconsistencies. We have found by experience that subconscious 
states produce a far more distinct appearance of reality than does 



36o CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

normal imagination. The subconscious, in dreams, delirium, hal- 
lucinations, and hypnosis, gives apparent physical reality to its 
objects. Mental creations appear to be physical or objective reali- 
ties. Now as such creations are often independent of normal 
physical stimuli, we may suppose that these functions are those that 
survive bodily death ; and, if this be true, they would often pro- 
duce apparent physical realities, just as they do in our subconscious. 
If they did so, and we could not introspect nor analyze any more 
than we can in sleep or hypnosis, we should take them for reality. 
If some spirits should continue the exercise of subconscious activi- 
ties, whatever the cause, temporary or permanent, they might take 
the result to be real; but, even if they did not, the transmission of 
pictures to the living through subconscious functions might stimul- 
ate reality. We should then find the statements about the spiritual 
world as various as the experiences and opinions of the communi- 
cators. At least a part of the after life may be mental, a sub- 
jective creation, though taken as physically real either by the spirit 
or by the medium through which the messages come. 

Perhaps the matter can be somewhat clarified by approaching 
it through what every one knows of normal mental action. Our 
knowledge or experience is divided into two types, both perfectly 
familiar to every one. The first is sensation, the response to 
physical stimuli. The second is reflection or self-consciousness, 
the inner mental states, so to speak. These may not be represent- 
able in terms of external things, but are as clearly known as sensa- 
tions. Their peculiarity is that they have a degree of independence 
of sensory states and of external stimuli or physical objects. We 
can think when we are not having sensations and we can always 
think about sensations. These acts of mind ^o on whether we are 
responding to external physical impressions or not. In fact these 
inner states, especially the emotions, are the representatives of value 
in experience, and appear to us to be the most important. Sensory 
phenomena are important only as signals in our relation to the 
physical world. If we could free ourselves from this relation, we 
might go on with the inner life without reference to an external 
world. When death destroys the sensory functions it may leave 
the reflective functions to continue their action; that is, it may 



MODE OF LIFE AFTER DEATH 361 

simply make them more independent of matter than they are in 
the bodily life. 

A further support of this view comes from study of the subcon- 
scious activities of the mind. These are manifestly more nearly 
independent of normal stimuli than is ordinary self -consciousness. 
They are going on all the time. We have evidence that sleep 
does not suspend them in the least and that the dreams we know are 
but fragments of the images produced in sleep. In healthy condi- 
tions they are concealed from us altogether, and only when some 
derangement is present do they invade normal activities and cause 
all sorts of hysterias and dissociations. They produce images that 
are taken for realities — for instance, hallucinations. Often a 
dream is so vivid that the subject can easily and clearly distinguish 
between it and ordinary dreams, which are more like the products 
of imagination, known to be unreal. Assuming, as did Mr. Myers, 
that the subconscious functions, freed from sense domination, 
adumbrate the nature of the future life and themselves survive in 
independence of sensory stimuli, we have a theory that explains 
all the contradictions in the revelations of the next life. Different 
persons have different interests and tastes, and these interests are 
preserved wdth their personal identity. If they continue to use 
the functions represented in subliminal activities, creating apparent 
reality as in dreams, somnambulism, hallucinations, and hypnosis, 
they will differ as much as men differ now in their thoughts and 
ideals. When in contact with living psychics, these states will be 
transferred as pictographic images, consciously or unconsciously, 
by the communicator and accepted by the psychic as representing at 
least a quasi-physical reality. In such a situation all sorts of con- 
fusion might arise. The earth-bound, who are those mostly in- 
terested in the memories and experiences of a physical life, would 
reflect states that belonged to their past sensory lives, and, in the 
course of communication by the pictographic process, create the 
impression that the spiritual life simply duplicates the physical. 

A life of mere thinking and dreaming may not appear very in- 
viting to most people, but I am not concerned with what we like or 
dislike. Science has to accept the universe as it is, and to find out 
what it is doing, not necessarily to gratify human desires. If the 



362 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

next life consists of day-dreaming, we shall have to accept it whether 
we like it or not. But I am not sure that this conception rightly 
represents the facts. We have not evidence enough to show what 
the transcendental world is in its entirety. I have already said 
that it may be only the other side of our own world, with a little 
more subjective or creative independence than normal conscious- 
ness now has. We discover in the confused statements about it, 
especially the paradoxical assertions of the earth-bound and the 
occasional explanation of their mental states as illusions and hal- 
lucinations; in the frequent admission that thought and creative 
influences are more dominant there than here; in the views of 
Swedenborg, which anticipated all that the pictographic process 
reveals — in all these we discover traces of a mental world which 
has much more freedom for activity than when it is hampered by 
bodily wants and subjected to physical influences. It is certain, if 
a future life has been proved or rendered probable at all, that, at 
least in the first period of life after death for many people, the 
creative functions of consciousness play a part in the representation 
of the spiritual world. Only the knowledge that subconscious in- 
fluences in the living media of transmission may distort the message 
or make it fragmentary will induce us to state the conditions cau- 
tiously and with the reservation that the point of view above taken 
is at most a tentative and partial account of the facts. 

To quote the evidence in support of this contention would re- 
quire a volume or two. Much of the material could not be re- 
garded as satisfactory evidence. Only sporadic and unconscious 
remarks in the course of discussion of other problems indicate to 
us a mental world analogous to that of dreams, except that it Is 
more rational and systematic. Even on the other side, irrationality 
may be met with often enough in those unadjusted to their en- 
vironment or obsessed with sensory memories and desire. 

I am willing to admit that the expression " mental world " will 
not convey much information or be clear to most people, and I do 
not pretend that it indicates very much even to me. It is a barren 
phrase to most people and hardly less so to myself. But it affords a 
point of contact with philosophic idealism, and it also enables us 
to make a psychological approach to the problem through the 



MODE OF LIFE AFTER DEATH 363 

subliminal processes and the inner life of reflection, which do not 
wholly depend upon sense-experience for their meaning. That 
is, those functions of mind that exhibit activities other than sensory 
may be the basis for conceiving the initial stages of a transcendental 
world independent of sense-perception. Hence '^ mental world " 
expresses the group of activities that may constitute a life a little 
more independent of stimuli than is life in our physical embodiment. 

As I have already indicated, the next world may only be the 
supersensible form of the physical world, and we may react to it as 
we do to the present, with something corresponding to sensation. 
But the conception of spirit as independent of the senses, is better 
represented by the subjective functions of the mind. The severance 
of our connection with the physical world as known to sense, may 
leave us nothing to start with except the inner functions of the mind, 
memories and subliminal faculties, which will have to create their 
own realities or apparent realities, as in dreams, poetizing, reverie, 
and day-dreaming, at least until some power at present unknown 
may enable us to respond to the new environment. This response 
may come sooner or later in our development on the other side. 
With some it may be instantaneous or not even interrupted by death, 
and with others much intervening time may elapse. The failure 
to have any but terrestrial memories to live upon, with their at- 
tachment to sensuous interests, gives rise to what is called the 
earth-bound condition, a state in which, as in delirium and dreams, 
we take our own mental states for physical realities. We may 
have to pass beyond this stage in order to become adjusted to our 
environment; the eradication of purely terrestrial memories may be 
necessary before we can feel and appreciate the nature of a spiritual 
world just as purely sensuous activities here have to be restrained, 
if we are to realize what is called spiritual life within us. 

The various contradictions about the next life make scientific 
and intelligent people doubt the assertions so frequently made about 
it. It is human nature to suppose that, if we accept messages as 
proof of continued personal identity, we should also accept the state- 
ments made about the future life. It is not, however, the veracity 
of communicators that secures the belief in their existence, but the 
evidence we have among the living that their statements are true. 



364 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

No message is accepted because it claims a transcendental origin, but 
only because we have proof that the psychic through whom it came 
was ignorant of the facts announced, and because we can verify it 
on the testimony of the living. We do not assume the veracity of 
a spirit until it has been proved by the same methods as those 
used among the living to justify trust in their statements. Even 
if proved to be honestly meant, the communications may not be 
true. They may be the result of mistaken judgment. More than 
honesty is required to guarantee truth. Intelligence is quite as im- 
portant as veracity. The consequence is that we can accept noth- 
ing purporting to come from spirits except what we can prove. 
This statement is especially important in this connection because 
the conditions for communicating are not the same as those be- 
tween the living. They are much more complex, so complex that 
we have to reckon with liabilities of error, even though both the 
veracity and the intelligence of the communicator have been es- 
tablished. The distortion of messages in transmission is an im- 
portant factor in the result ; and when we recognize also the likeli- 
hood of error in the impersonations, we may well doubt statements 
concerning the nature of the next life. 

The contradictions are so numerous that it is hopeless to try to 
accept a superficial interpretation of the phenomena. One set of 
communicators — it makes no difference whether they are real or 
merely subconscious personalities — tells us that life in the spiritual 
world duplicates the physical life exactly, including food, dress, 
trade, art, *' cigar manufactories," " whiskey sodas," and the whole 
gamut of objects and employments that we indulge in. Another 
set totally denies this and tells us that we cannot conceive what the 
world is like. Some tell us that reincarnation' is true; others deny 
it. Some teach orthodox religious views, others the opposite. 
Some believe in God and some do not. Some claim to live in 
houses and others do not. There is no sort of unity in such claims 
except on the theory that the after life, as Swedenborg maintained, 
is one of mental states. Every one is free to think as he desires; 
and, if he can create his own world, as is constantly asserted in 
communications, that world will take as many forms as there are 
variant minds to create it, just as the subjective existences of living 



MODE OF LIFE AFTER DEATH 365 

people differ. Landing in the spiritual world with personal identity 
and the memories of a terrestrial life, most of them sensory, and 
with the inherent tendency of the subliminal functions to produce 
the appearance of physical reality, spirits might well give discrepant 
accounts of the life. The conception of a world of mental states 
brings a certain consistency into the phenomena, to which we may 
hold while we pursue investigations, until we have positive evidence 
of the nature of the environment that constitutes objective life in 
the spiritual world. 



CHAPTER XXII 
REVELATIONS OF THE OTHER WORLD 

THE discussion in the previous chapter prepares the way 
for what is to be said on this present subject. If it be 
difficult to tell what the nature of a transcendental life 
is, it will be equally different to say what the spiritual world itself 
is. But there have been bold enough attempts to describe it. 
St. John's Book of Revelation was perhaps the first after Greek 
mythology. In modern times, the works of Emanuel Sweden- 
borg and later of Andrew Jackson Davis, have perhaps exer- 
cised more influence than any others. Swedenborg described the 
spiritual world rather minutely, but his symbolic diction was not 
always understood and his theory of mental states was never ap- 
preciated as highly by the laity as by scholars. The laity too 
often interpreted it literally, though he specifically corrected this 
misconception. Andrew Jackson Davis frankly described the spirit- 
ual world in sensory terms and developed no theory of mental states 
nor any doctrine of idealism. 

Before saying anything about the value of revelations I should 
perhaps give examples of them. They intermingle descriptive ac- 
counts of the spiritual world and its life with philosophy and ad- 
monitions or precepts. 

I am not going to raise or decide the question whether the 
mediums through whom the revelations came are honest or fraudul- 
ent. For our purpose here it makes no difference. We are dis- 
cussing not the source, but the validity of the messages. The condi- 
tions determining the source of messages are one thing and the con- 
ditions determining validity are another, even though ultimately we 
must know something of the source when considering the validity 
of messages purporting to describe a transcendental world. But 
even then their validity will depend not upon the fact that they 
are spiritistic, but upon the articulation and correlation of the total 

366 



REVELATIONS OF THE OTHER WORLD 367 

mass of material into a consistent whole and perhaps upon some 
relation to the known in the physical world. I do not care at 
present to decide this question of source. The authors from whom 
I quote the statements believed the messages to come from a spiritual 
world. We are studying the relation of these accounts to exist- 
ing knowledge and to each other. It makes no difference whether 
they came from frauds or from honest people. If we knew enough 
of the transcendental world to accept statements upon the proved 
veracity of the communicators it might suffice to be assured of the 
honesty of the source. But veracity is only one requirement when 
we have to learn from spirit sources the nature of the next world 
and its life. Competency to report is just as necessary as veracity. 
If there are degrees of intelligence and different planes of existence, 
the testimonies of various communicators will not have the same 
value, and a given communication may not represent the whole of 
transcendental existence. Furthermore, with competency proved, 
we have to reckon with the limitations of the medium, which may 
so modify and color the messages as wholly transform them on the 
way. All these, and perhaps more, considerations enter into the 
evaluation of the messages; but we have no space to detail them. 
We are only illustrating the '' revelations " purporting to give ac- 
counts of the spiritual world, disregarding their source and the 
influence of the living mind upon their transmission. We have 
here to deal with them superficially as they come to us. 

I shall first quote a passage from Dr. Hare's work. It purports 
to come from a spirit that died as a very little child and now reports 
what it had much later learned. 

" My life here has been a charmed one, enrapturing scenes of beauty 
being constantly presented to view, like the ever varying landscapes de- 
lineated on the canvas by a skilful artist. Now is seen a beautiful silvery 
lake on whose translucent bosom floats the graceful swan, bending his 
pliant neck, as if proudly conscious of his surpassing beauty ; and anon, 
among the hills of this lake, which appear like gems on a virgin brow, 
shoots a tiny barque, freighted with angelic children. Then is presented a 
bolder view, of towering mountains and wide-extended plains, with the 
accompanying characteristics of hill and dell. 

'* There are gardens there of inconceivable beauty, filled with the choic- 
est and most aromatic herbs and flowers, and birds with every con- 
ceivable variety of plumage. The parks are of great mai^nitude, and 



368 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

abound with the most beautiful animals. The swift antelope, the wild 
gazelle, and the graceful deer are seen ranging over the flowery plains. 
There the lion and the lamb lie down together in peaceful innocence. 
There are congregated millions of spirits, who are associated together like 
a harmonious and happy family. The vales are vocal with celestial melody, 
and the air is redolent with the perfume of flowers." 

Men may differ as to the spirituality of this heaven. Some would 
regard it as purely materialistic, but I am sure that most of them 
would enjoy it nevertheless. 

In regard to the employments of spirits the following passage 
is of especial interest, particularly as one statement in it may- 
throw light upon the whole subject of the transcendental life. 

" Our scientific researches and investigations are extended to all that 
pertains to the phenomena of universal nature; to all the wonders of the 
heavens and the earth, and to whatever the mind of man is capable of con- 
ceiving: all of which exercise our faculties, and form a considerable part 
of our enjoyments. The noble and sublime sciences of astronomy, chemis- 
try, and mathematics, engage a considerable portion of our attention, and 
afford us an inexhaustible subject for study and reflection. 

" We do not study those practical arts, which are so essential to the 
earth-life, such as mechanics, etc. ; for we do not stand in need of their 
applications; our studies being wholly of a mental character, we attend to 
the fundamental principles only. All the more intellectual branches of 
the arts and sciences are cultivated in a much more perfect manner than 
that to which we have been accustomed upon earth." 

Like the previous passage, this regards the spiritual world as a 
perfect replica of the physical universe, with certain exceptions 
which the careful reader will note. The thing to be specially re- 
marked is the denial of the existence of the practical arts and the 
emphasis upon " mental " occupations. Either this is evidence of a 
subconscious revolt against the complete reproduction of a physical 
existence, or it is a tacit admission of radical differences between 
that world and this. The allusion to mental occupations implies 
Swedenborg's view; namely, that the spiritual world is mental and 
creative, and that the appearance of the physical is therefore an 
illusion. If we accept the pictographic process of intercommunica- 
tion between minds, we can interpret the above descriptions as per- 
taining to a dream life of some kind, whether rational or otherwise. 
But I am not concerned here with deciding such a question. The 



REVELATIONS OF THE OTHER WORLD 369 

main point is to notice that we have either to reckon with sub- 
conscious imaginings of the medium or with a conception very 
different from the literal meaning of the report. After being 
taught by the Cartesian philosophy and much Christian speculation 
that the spiritual world is not material and that it can have no 
resemblance to the present life, we are confronted with a descrip- 
tion of it as exactly like our own, except for the absence of evil. 
Only a careful scrutiny of the accounts reveals sporadic but signifi- 
cant statements completely altering the conception that hasty read- 
ing creates. 

I shall next quote a passage from the work of Judge Edmunds. 
But I must first remind the reader that he must be on the lookout 
for symbolic meaning in the description. The tone of the account 
is realistic, and we should not ordinarily suspect that it had any 
other import. Before the experiment the persons present had been 
told that a vision would come to Dr. Dexter, the medium in the 
case. After following instructions, the party waited, and there 
came the following vision. It is descriptive of some features of 
the next life. 

" Away off in the regions of space, as if in the midst of the starry firma- 
ment, I saw a bright and majestic spirit sitting in a sort of throne, which 
was placed on a fleecy, white cloud. A few feet above his head reposed 
a wreath of flowers, from whence flowed rays of light to his head, form- 
ing, as it were, a crown of light and flowers. He had on a loose garment, 
beautifully variegated with blue and pink, and ornamented with purple 
velvet, which sparkled as with diamonds. His left hand rested on a globe, 
on the arm of his seat, from which radiated a golden light, indicative of 
affection. On the right arm of his chair was a similar globe radiating a 
silver light, indicating wisdom. His right arm was raised, and he pointed 
me to a distant view. He was evidently of a higher command in the 
execution of God's laws than I had yet seen. Far beneath him were in- 
numerable stars of all sizes careering through space, and apparently 
gamboling in the exuberance of their joy. At first the scene seemed to 
me one of great disorder; but as I gazed I saw how all was order and 
harmony. I saw many spirits coming to and going from him, as if with 
messages — coming as from distant stars, and vanishing in space with in- 
conceivable rapidity. 

" While I gazed, I saw a very bright light, most gorgeous, like a blazing 
sun, approaching him from behind, and forming a background to him. The 
rays of it were ever shooting out from its center various hues, yet it 
seemed formed of numberless concentric rings of different colors. I can 
convey no idea of its glorious splendor. 



370 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD ' 

" That light was the central sun of all these systems of worlds I saw 
beneath his feet, and he was the high and holy intelligence that governed 
their action in obedience to the laws of God. 

" He arose from his seat, and leaning on it with one arm, he pointed 
me with the other off to his right. There I saw a bright and dazzling 
spirit, with no clothing upon him, but shining like burnished silver. He 
was floating in the blue ethereal, and seemed a great storehouse of 
dazzling light, which he was scattering from him in all directions. 

" I saw that he was superior to the other spirit, yet I felt as if there 
was a sense of solitude about him, and that he had no companions. He 
replied to my thought by spreading out his hands and saying, * These 
worlds are my companions; my solitude is peopled by myriads of shining 
intelligences.' 

" He pointed me to other systems of worlds far off in the illimitable dis- 
tance, and immense in number. He seemed to be the apex of a cone; 
spreading out and beneath him were the worlds which he governed, whose 
guide and director he was. He pointed me to one still higher than himself, 
his superior in power and wisdom. Of that one I saw only the head." 

Now we have only to look carefully at this description to see that 
it is symbolical. The figures said to represent affection and wisdom 
are the first clear intimation of the way the vision is to be inter- 
preted. The latter part carries its own suggestion. But as if sug- 
gestion were not enough, the author adds the following as a 
part of the message conveyed by the vision: 

" The great lesson taught by these scenes is the occupation of spirits, 
one above another, in their career of progression — each greater than the 
other, and executing God's laws on a larger scale and in a higher sphere." 

The whole elaborate imagery is therefore symbolic, as those 
familiar with the pictographic process will readily recognize, while 
we have also to reckon with the fact that the language of the 
description is Dr. Dexter's. The picture does not carry with it 
its own language nor its own interpretation. Whether this last 
comes from the mind of Dr. Dexter, or from the transcendental 
world, makes no difference. The narrative continues with the 
following passage by automatic writing through Dr. Dexter's 
hand : 

" This is one process of development. Watch and see his form rising 
from that brilliant cloud of lambent flame. This personifies truth as de- 
veloped to minds prepared to receive it. You never, perhaps, may see 
anything so brilliant and gorgeous again. Let the circle be particularly 
silent and let their minds turn to this subject." 



REVELATIONS OF THE OTHER WORLD 371 

Note that this passage is explanatory of the meaning of the vision 
up to this point. The phrase, " Personifying truth " for " minds 
prepared to receive it " is an indication that the apparently sen- 
suous description is really concerned with abstract ideas. The vi- 
sion continues : 

" There arose up from beneath this bodiless spirit a beautiful rose- 
colored light. It was indeed a glorious sight, which language is inadequate 
to describe. 

'* The temple was surrounded by a great number of spirits, with musical 
instruments in their hands, and from them arose a flood of music, far sur- 
passing anything ever heard by mortal ears. The building had a Doric 
roof, and stood high up from its base. It was ascended by a flight of 
many steps, extending across the whole front. There were three rows of 
columns on each side, of infinite variety of colors; they were not Doric 
in form, but tall and slender, and somewhat of the Ionic order. This 
temple was open at its sides, and its pavement and columns shone with 
a brilliant sparkling gleam amid that rose-colored atmosphere. 

" On each side of the building was a glorious garden, variegated with 
water, shrubbery, and flowers, equally dazzling in their brilliancy. The 
leaves of the flowers and plants were transparent, yet shone with a glitter 
like the ice-plant, or as if covered with frost in the morning sun. The 
water was now a calm and placid pool, now a bubbling stream, now a 
jet, and anon a tumbling fall. The flowers were of all possible colors, and 
I could see their perfume arise from them and mingle with the atmosphere. 
At the same time I could see the plants drinking in, through their leaves, 
the life-principle from the atmosphere, and giving it out sublimated and 
refined as a perfume. Those plants were in all stages of development, so 
that it seemed as if spring and summer, conjoined, reigned there forever. 
There was every variety of foliage and shady trees, now dense, dark and 
cool, and now sparse and transparent. The water was full of fishes. 
gamboling in the joyousness of life in such pure waters and the air was 
full of birds, rendering it beautiful with their plumage, and vocal with 
their song. One bird I noticed in particular: he was brown and plain in 
look, and as he reposed on a limb of one of the trees, he sent up his joy- 
ous song, ringing clear over all other sounds — its notes like the softest 
flute, expressive of happiness, and imparting a feeling of gladness to all 
around." 

We must not forget that the description is Dr. Dexter's own, and 
that he has before him a panorama of pictures, pictographic imag- 
ery, with here and there a note of symbolism. Such phrases as 
seeing the perfume rising, and the plants '' drinking in the life- 
principle and giving it out subliminated and refined as a perfume," 
are natural symbolic expressions for speculative truth, represented 



372 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

as apparent fact. All this will become clearer in some later com- 
ments. The narrative goes on: 

** The basement of the temple, 1 saw, was prepared and fitted up for a 
room in which public meetings were to be held. At one end of it was 
the seat of the presiding spirit. It was the precise, tomb-Hke monument 
of myself that I had seen once before, on which was recorded my age 
when I died. Back of that, on the wall, was a picture of that cross 
in the sky. which I had seen with its attendant spirit and its scrolls. Be- 
neath that picture was my new seal painted, and on each side two other 
seals; they consisted of shields and emblazonry. One had a cross-bar run- 
ning diagonally, above which was the scene of the good Samaritan ; and 
below a bright spirit, who was lifting a slave from the ground and knock- 
ing off his chains. The scroll beneath the shield contained these words: 
* Love conquers all things.' '' 

This was Dr. Dexter's coat of arms ; the other was Mr. Warren's. 
It was quartered by bars crossing each other at right angles. In 
one quarter was a shepherd surrounded by his flock ; he was re- 
clining under a tree, and examining the starry firmament. In 
the second quarter was a man far down in a deep pit, examining 
the formation of the rock and earth. In the third, was a man 
reading; and in the fourth, one with crucibles and other chemical 
apparatus. The inscription was, " Knowledge is Progressive." 

The description continues for nearly two pages, but we have seen 
enough to understand the character of the whole. We are con- 
cerned here only with that part which contains internal evidence of 
being s>Tnbolic. The symbolic meaning is unconsciously revealed 
in the very contents of the message. For instance. Dr. Dexter's 
monument, inscribed with his epitaph, is not a vision of present 
reality, but a premonition. The shield and other figures are also 
symbolic. ]\Iore especially we note a prediction of the downfall 
of slavery, which was not an established fact at the time of this 
vision, in 1853. The vision, therefore, was not of actual facts, but 
consisted of images signifying future events. It matters not what 
the source of these pictures may be: we are assuming their spirit- 
istic origin here onlv to indicate that the symbolic character of the 
pictures is not affected thereby, while it is taken for granted on 
any other theory of their source. That part which is obviously 
symbolic suggests the same interpretation for the rest. 



REVEL.\TIONS OF THE OTHlTx WORLD 



J/O 



We could go through the Hterature oi spirituaHsm and tind many 
examples of symbolic vision. As the piotogTaphio process of com- 
nuuiication is so ooiuuumi, oven when the personal idoniity of the 
discaniare is l^ing proved, when we cannot tor a moment suppose 
that real things are seen, we have to Ixwr in iTiind in considering such 
narratives, the conditions of that process with its inhereitt symKtl- 
ism. This point can be brought out in another way. 

Strictly scientific language is inadequate to interpret art. We 
cannot directly convey the impressions attd emotions we experience 
in the enjoyment of works of art. We have to describe tlie prod- 
uct in temis that carry with them certain emotional values; and, 
unless the reeipiettt has had experience enough to read iitto the 
language what the eomnmnieator has in mind, he fails to get the 
meaning. The deseriptiotis cotuain words signify ittg certain emo- 
tional etYects : and. as we can commimieate with each other only in 
terms of sense-perception, of pictorial imagerv of some kittd. a 
criticism may often enough seeitt absurd to the stickler for scien- 
tific accuracy, though perfectly intelligible to the tnan who appre- 
ciates art and the emotional reactions to beauty. 

We can apply the psychology of art to our present problem. If 
the spiritual world be dominamlv a world to be described appre- 
ciatively, not scientitieally. we mav well utulerstand how descrip- 
tive accounts have a symbolic meaning which should be interj^reted 
in terms oi emotion. Many oi the revelations of the spiritual 
world characterize it as dominaiuly emotional and atTectional. 
Mere knowledg^e is secondar\' among its ititerests. Just as we use 
sensuous imagery in interpreting anv work of art. so the pieto- 
graphic process, recogitiidng the ditriciilties oi describitig a spiritual 
world, uses such pictures as will carry with them emotions char- 
acteristic of the spiritual life wherever fotmd. In the attempt to de- 
scribe a piece of nmsic. the critic or artist ettdeavors to make a 
body of soimd intelligible in terms of visual imagery. A nuisician 
may call his composition " A Rose." meaning that his tnusical work 
gives rise to the same emotion as that produced by a rose. The 
writer who speaks of "a symphony of color" is using nuisical 
terms to describe a visual elYect. The language cannot be taken 
literally ; the appreciative mind must construe the meaning in terms 



374 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

of emotional reactions. The same principle may apply to the ac- 
counts of the spiiitual world. The pictographic process must rep- 
resent it in pictorial images, but the mind must see in them the emo- 
tional meaning of the representations, and ignore the literal import. 

The work of Andrew Jackson Davis has proved attractive to most 
people because it contains more description and philosophy than 
most similar productions, and because the author maintains that he 
had read little or nothing on the subject. His " Summer Land " 
is as complete a description as was ever given of the other world 
in terms of sense. This characteristic arouses at once the skep- 
ticism of the more intelligent and the enthusiasm of the ignorant. 
There can be no doubt that his work is remarkable as a case for the 
psychologist ; but its literal truth is another matter. 

Since we have had no experience of the transcendental world it 
requires scrutiny and discrimination to determine what reports are 
acceptable and what are not. The veracity of the communicator 
does not guarantee the truth of his statements. We need to know 
two things in addition to his veracity, (i) We must know his 
competency or the intelligence of his judgment in making his ob- 
servations. (2) We must know that he is reporting more than 
his individual impressions. When these two conditions are fulfilled 
we may be able to accept reports about the next world. 

Now when we add to the difficulties just mentioned the further 
complications (i) that the accounts of the spiritual world do not 
agree in their details, and (2) that the reactions of different spirits 
may vary as widely as do the esthetic judgments of the living, we 
shall have abundant reason to exercise caution before accepting 
accounts of the spiritual world at their face value. If the descrip- 
tions are highly symbolic and if they are determined by the degree 
of development of the individual spirit, we could hardly expect 
them to be identical or even consistent. The differences between 
the spiritual and the physical world make it difficult to give a satis- 
factory account of the former. Just in proportion as it is different 
from this life, spirits must be unable to describe it in the only terms 
by which it can be made intelligible to most people. Just in pro- 
portion as it is like the physical world the stories about it will be 
credible to the ordinary person and at the same time will excite 



REVELATIONS OF THE OTHER WORLD 375 

the skepticism of the man who does not think altogether in terms 
of sensory images. The contradictions in the accounts make it 
easy to understand why the intelHgent man hesitates to accept the 
revelations, though the average man simply selects what pleases 
him and ignores the rest. The conflict lies between different cri- 
teria of truth, the untrained mind accepting at its face value every 
narrative couched in sensory terms, and the scientific mind doubt- 
ing everything that pretends to describe a spiritual world in physi- 
cal terms. The reconciliation lies in the belief in a supersensible 
physical universe saturated with spirit, whatever view of spirit we 
take, and in the belief in spiritual activities of a dominantly emo- 
tional type, which have to be translated into sensory terms when 
they are described to the living. But we have still to prove the 
existence of such a state of affairs. 

Contradictions in the statements are due partly to the same causes 
which make the living differ in their opinions, and partly to differ- 
ences in the conditions under which spirits exist. There are what 
we call the earth-bound spirits who live in their sensory memories 
and desires. Their communications must reflect their own mental 
condition and would naturally contain just such stories as those 
which offend the scientific intelligence. Then there is the crank, 
who still insists on teaching us his doctrine whenever he can find 
a channel through which to express it. It is probable that the 
earth-bound and the cranks can communicate more easily than 
can the more highly developed, and that they would be more per- 
sistent in their efforts. Death does not make radical changes in 
our natures. We retain the same characters; if we have resisted 
progress here we may do so in the spiritual world. Moreover, 
many messages are compounds formed by two or more minds act- 
ing at the same time. It is probable that this condition exercises a 
more distorting influence on results than do the messages of the 
earth-bound. But we have to reckon with so many obstacles to the 
intelligibility of the messages, including their frequently symbolic 
nature, that we have to be exceedingly wary in the acceptance of 
any revelation. 

The manifold difliculties which I have discussed above will al- 
ways stare us in the face, though we may be forced to admit that 



376 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

there is some basis of truth in the revelations. Only the common 
elements in the total mass of conflicting accounts can be accepted, 
and even these only on the assurance that they are not reflections 
of normal ideas and imaginings. We must be sure that the mind 
which delivers them has not known any of the ideas and theories 
of spiritualism, if we are to exclude the influence of conscious and 
subconscious knowledge on the statements. To secure an adequate 
conception of the spiritual world by such a process of sifting will 
require many years of investigation and study. We are in no posi- 
tion at present to provide the scientific mind with a clear concep- 
tion of the transcendental world nor with any simple criterion of 
validity for the communications concerning that world. 



, CHAPTER XXIII 

REINCARNATION 

THE doctrine of reincarnation is one form of belief in 
survival after death. We meet with it in early Buddhism, 
in early Greek philosophy, among the physicists or so- 
called materialists of the Pre-Socratic period and again in Plato. 
The early materialists are represented as believers in survival in any 
form only by the more exhaustive historians of the period; and 
even they mention the belief merely for the sake of completeness, 
as if it were an irrelevant detail of the system. But it was too im- 
portant an element in the philosophy of Plato to be ignored. He 
seems to have been the only prominent philosopher of Greece in 
the intellectual period who had the hardihood to defend it. The 
theosophists of modern times have advocated it; most of them 
derive their belief from Buddhism. The idea prevailed in other 
religious and philosophic sects of India, either growing out of 
Buddhism or out of the systems that preceded Buddhism. 

I do not intend here to go into the history of the doctrine. 
I mention its antiquity primarily to show that it is not the result 
of modern scientific progress. But its value must rest on facts and 
not on antiquity or authority. I have discussed it in another work, 
" The Border-land of Psychic Research." I shall here take up 
only additional matters, which have become important through 
the revival of interest in the doctrine by the theosophists. 

In general, reincarnation means that the soul after death comes 
back again to the earthly life in another physical body. It assumes 
that the materialistic theory of consciousness is not true; either 
taking the existence of a soul for granted, or adducing the facts 
of normal consciousness and experience as sufficient to justify the 
belief in the existence of a soul. Its doctrine of re-embodiment or 
transmigration as a form of survival, differs in certain details from 
the Christian and. other similar views. It does not accept the bodily 

S77, 



378 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

resurrection; perhaps advanced Christianity does not do so any 
longer, though many Christians still cling to it. This theory im- 
plies that the soul retains its identity when it re-occupies a body, 
either the old one resurrected or a new one created for the pur- 
pose. But reincarnation does not assume any resurrection. It 
assumes that the soul, without memory of the past, comes back and 
occupies a body created by ordinary sexual union. This denial of 
memory is the fundamental characteristic of the doctrine, as held 
by most theosophists to-day and in the past. If faced with the 
disadvantages of the loss of memory, theosophists maintain that 
after various reincarnations this memory of all past experiences is 
recovered. It is lost as a consequence of the individual's mistake 
and sins, and is restored when his " karma " or probationary dis- 
cipline is complete ; after his various transmigrations. 

Now it must be said that this belief rests on metaphysics alone. 
It has no scientific foundation whatever. Some venture to adduce 
facts to support it, but these will not bear the slightest examina- 
tion as evidence. For instance, some will tell us that they can re- 
member a previous existence. But they do not reckon with illusions 
of memory. We sometimes recall something which we locate in 
a certain time and place, but find later that this location was wrong. 
When the total experience is recalled we find that we are dealing 
with two events connected only by similarity. We confused them 
because of the imperfection of the recall. This imperfect recall 
will explain most of the alleged instances of recollection of a prenatal 
past. 

Other facts adduced in support of reincarnation can be explained 
as mediumistic phenomena. That is, discarnate personalities may 
produce in the minds of psychics the feeling of long past time 
or of previous existence by the transmission, telepathically per- 
haps, of their own feelings and states of mind. These would nat- 
urally enough be interpreted as evidence of reincarnation. But 
when we find that they are memories transmitted from the dis- 
carnate to the living mind, their claims as evidence are nullified. 
The sense of recognizing a place which we are seeing for the first 
time is another type of fact like the one just considered, except 
that it involves space instead of time. It too can be explained 



REINCARNATION 379 

either as an illusion of memory or as clairvoyance. Either hypo- 
thesis nullifies the value of the facts as evidence for reincarnation. 

I allude thus briefly to the alleged evidence for transmigration, 
in order to show that it has no scientific standing. Its metaphysical 
character is another matter; I have eliminated its scientific claims 
in order to show that it is only a metaphysical theory. It may be 
true or false, but it cannot be assumed to be true without evidence : 
for metaphysical theories are to-day discredited unless they can 
produce evidence in their support. They are legitimate enough as 
imaginary possibilities, but woe unto the man who asserts them to 
be facts. What it is that can recommend the doctrine of reincarna- 
tion to its believers is difficult to understand. It contains nothing 
desirable and nothing ethical. To be sure, its desirability or un- 
desirability has nothing to do with its truth or falsity. It might 
be true, though very undesirable, and it might be false, though very 
desirable. But as it is a metaphysical theory, we have a right to 
test its relation to practical life and the native instincts of man, 
when we cannot find scientific evidence to prove it. 

Reincarnation is not desirable, because it does not satisfy the only 
instinct that makes survival of any kind interesting, namely, the in- 
stinct to preserve the consciousness of personal identity. This is 
denied to the process until its end and that is never in sight! 
Moreover, assertion of even this return of memory is purely arbi- 
trary. Man's only interest in survival is for the persistence of his 
personal identity. It is a form of the impulse towards self-preser- 
vation, which is fundamental to all the acquisitions of experience 
and character in this life. A future life must be the continuity of 
this consciousness or it is not a life to us at all. 

Moreover, there is nothing ethical in the doctrine. The ab- 
solutely fundamental condition of all ethics is memory and the 
retention of personal identity, and memory and personal identity 
are excluded from the process of reincarnation. That you cannot 
maintain a theory of responsibility in any existence without memory 
is a truism in ethics and even in our civil courts. If our personal 
identity were changed, we could not be held responsible for any- 
thing we did. If we lost our memory every five minutes we should 
be regarded as insane, and crime could not be ascribed to us. In 



38o CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

cases of alternating personality, punishment might be meted out 
to the personality performing the act, but this restraint could not 
apply to the other personality. The result is that cases of dissocia- 
tion and change of personality are subjects for the physician and not 
the police. 

The doctrine of reincarnation has to face this large question. 
We cannot apply to any future life the categories of the present, un- 
less personal identity be assumed. Memory from one stage to an- 
other is necessary to the continuance of existence. " Karma " 
without memory is retribution minus all grounds for it, abstracting 
everything that makes it rational. 

How then did such a doctrine originate ? What could have given 
rise to such a theory? Plato may be forgiven because we know 
his poetic and literary instincts. But there was some reason for the 
maintenance of the belief, and we may well ask what this reason 
was. Even fantastic views, when persistently and seriously held, 
have some reason for their existence; and the doctrine of reincarna- 
tion is too old and too insistent not to have had some reason for its 
origin. 

If the doctrine could be defined as meaning the survival of con- 
sciousness in the spiritual body, it would be consistent not only 
with some forms of spiritualism, but also with Christianity. But 
usually its advocates deny this view. Some of them are as much 
opposed to spiritistic theories as are the skeptics, though many 
regard psychic research as a stepping stone to their own philosophy. 
They often admit the existence of a spiritual body, but do not con- 
ceive the relation of personality or consciousness to it as one of 
transmigration. If they could conceive that relation as the trans- 
fer of the present consciousness to a spiritual body there would be 
no logical, no ethical, and no scientific difficulties in the way of that 
conception. But this would be giving up their denial that memory 
endures throughout the process of reincarnation; and few, if any, 
theosophists will admit the conception just defined. 

It was this idea with which Professor James was playing when 
he tried to defend the possibility of immortality by the doctrine of 
transmissive functions of the brain. He did not call his theory re- 
incarnation, for to do so would at once have discredited his view 



REINCARNATION 381 

in the minds of scientists, if only because of associations and im- 
plications which he did not admit and which the theosophists hold. 
Professor James, instead of using the results of psychic research to 
prove survival after death, confined himself to physiological and 
psychological arguments, maintaining the materialistic view of the 
nature of consciousness. He admitted, with the materialist, that 
consciousness is a function of the brain. But, in order to avoid the 
materialist's conclusion he tried to distinguish between what he 
called transmissive and productive functions of the brain. He did 
not make the distinction very clear or tenable in relation to facts, 
but he used the idea consistently enough. By productive functions 
of the brain he meant such as are so organically connected with it 
that they perish when the body dies. He imagined that conscious- 
ness, however, might be a function that could be transmitted from 
the brain to some other structure, whether the transmission be con- 
ceived as reincarnation with or without the retention of personal 
identity. He said nothing about transmigration of the soul to 
other human bodies, and he probably would not have tolerated the 
idea. Neither did he say anything about the question whether 
any " spiritual," " astral," or ethereal organisms existed without 
any connection w^ith a body. He left us to infer that they might 
be formed or created for the transmitted consciousness after death. 
But the notion of transmission is not necessary to spiritism. Con- 
sciousness either is now a function of the " spiritual body," whether 
spatial or spaceless, or is so closely associated with such an organ- 
ism that it goes with it at death, without the need of '' transmission." 
But to assume '* transmission," as Professor James did, is to as- 
sume that the " ethereal organism " is not now associated with 
consciousness, but awaits the reception of it when it has left the 
brain. 

This view has the merit of forcing the materialist to argue the 
case from his own premises, but it is totally without evidence. It 
is quite as a priori as any mediaeval theology, and therefore is in- 
consistent with the ** radical empiricism " which was the funda- 
mental belief of Professor James. 

When, in the light of psychic research, we examine the early 
theories of animism and the doctrine of reincarnation as held 



382 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

among the early Greek philosophers, even the materialists Empe- 
docles and Democritus, we may discover how the theory of rein- 
carnation originated. Primitive animism was bound up with the 
belief in reincarnation, but it was not clearly worked out into a 
logical and consistent philosophy. We find in animism only the 
seeds of the doctrine, in the naive ideas of ignorant people with a 
penchant for explaining things. But when we recognize unde- 
veloped spiritualism in this primitive animism, we find a clue to 
the origin of the theory of reincarnation. 

Spiritualism based upon communication with the dead assumes 
the return of the discarnate spirit to the earthly life; and its tem- 
porary occupation of a human body in order to effect the com- 
munication. This return might be called an incarnation. Com- 
municators have often said that their return is like getting into 
the living body and living over again in that organism. Un- 
philosophic ages might develop this circumstance into a theory of 
reincarnation, after they had forgotten the conditions which gave 
rise to the original meaning of the term. Such development is 
very frequent in the history of religious and philosophic beliefs. 
For instance, we cannot read the New Testament in the. light of 
psychic research and the meaning of Greek and Hebrew words, 
without noting that the resurrection was originally only a theory 
of survival based upon apparitions. Long before Christianity 
arose, anastasis, the Greek word for resurrection, in one of its 
meanings, signified the appearance of apparitions. The doctrine 
had been discussed between the Sadducees and the Pharisees be- 
fore Christ was said to have risen. The Greeks had been long 
familiar with the idea, which developed into the doctrine of the 
bodily resurrection only after the facts on which it was based were 
discarded or forgotten, perhaps partly because of the confusion 
attending, on the one hand, the conceptions of matter and spirit, and, 
on the other, the real meaning of the " spiritual body " of St. Paul. 
A similar development is apparent in the doctrine of the Trinity. 
It meant something intelligible with reference to the Greek con- 
ception of personality as simply a representation of characteristics 
in a subject, not the subject itself. When this meaning was lost 
and the terminology retained as a dogma, philosophers and theolog- 



REINCARNATION 383 

ians felt the necessity of trying to explain it by concocting pre- 
posterous arguments to bolster up a phrase that had lost its primi- 
tive significance. 

In some such way we can conceive the origin of the doctrine 
of reincarnation, without supposing that it was fabricated by the 
imagination without any facts whatever upon which to work. 
Both mediumistic phenomena and the statements of communicators 
suggest something like reincarnation, though they do not support 
the developed system. They show that returning to communicate 
involves something like the old relation of the soul to the body, 
which for them might be called " reincarnation," though not as a 
mode of '' karma " or punishment. 

This latter doctrine, a concomitant of reincarnation, may have 
arisen from certain phenomena associated with what are called 
earth-bound spirits. These are persons so obsessed with their 
earthly life that it is often difficult for them to get away from 
their former interests. It is represented in some communica- 
tions that this condition may be remedied by bringing earth-bound 
spirits into contact with living organisms, especially psychics, in 
order to remove the fixed ideas and the attachment to earthly 
memories and experiences. In this way they work* out their salva- 
tion, so to speak ; and any mention of this state of affairs in com- 
munications would call to mind the doctrine of expiation and pun- 
ishment. 

But until reincarnation can adduce scientific facts in its support, 
it cannot rival psychic research. Scientific doctrines always pro- 
duce evidence, and do not extend their theories or explanations be- 
yond facts. Metaphysical speculations are possible; and are the 
delight of certain types of mind, but they are not substitutes for 
facts. All that scientific men ask of the reincarnationist is that he 
produce satisfactory evidence for transmigration; until he does so, 
the theory cannot claim to be based on fact. It is only fair to 
give it a hearing in this connection and to eliminate all suspicion of 
prejudice against it, I can only say that, if proper evidence be ad- 
duced for it, I shall admit it, though I should have to regard the 
cosmos as irrational. The probable origin of the theory of re- 
incarnation explains the element of truth which it contains. But 



384 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

the survival of personal identity, adequately supported by facts, 
contradicts the main doctrine of the reincarnationist. 

It is true that communications, or what purport to be com- 
munications, from the dead assert the doctrine of reincarnation. 
But we must remember that there is no agreement in communica- 
tions of the dead about their life. The disagreement is as great 
as it is about philosophic views among the living. Perhaps there 
is no literature in which contradictory conceptions of spiritual ex- 
istence are more numerous than in the real or alleged descriptions 
in spiritualistic records. This inconsistency prevents our uncritical 
acceptance of these records as final on any point. It goes to prove 
that we are receiving only statements of opinion, not facts, from 
communicators, if we accept the statements as communications from 
a transcendental world. Some communicators deny the reincarna- 
tion. Consequently, when we consider that the retention of per- 
sonal identity includes retention of the views that we held when 
living, especially if we remain earth-bound and unadjusted to the 
new environment for a time; when we consider subconscious dis- 
tortion and coloring of messages by the medium, especially if he 
normally believes in reincarnation; when we allow for misinter- 
pretation of both facts and messages; and when we recognize the 
fragmentary character of all messages and the limitations of the 
medium, we shall quite understand that communications from the 
dead, whether for or against reincarnation, are not to be accepted 
at their superficial value. The contradictions require us either to 
distrust all communications on this subject or to reconstruct the 
messages in the light of an extensive study of all the recorded state- 
ments. 



CHAPTER XXIV 
OBSESSION 

THE Christian church should be as famiHar with obsession 
as it is with the divinity of Christ, miracles, the im- 
maculate conception, inspiration, baptism, and other doc- 
trines: for the existence of evil spirits affecting the living is as 
clearly taught in the New Testament, and implied in the Old Testa- 
ment, as any doctrine there expounded. But the church has repudi- 
ated belief in '^ witchcraft," which it cannot escape save by accept- 
ing the verdict of science instead of revelation. It has reduced the 
Biblical cases of obsession to hysteria, epilepsy, paranoia and simi- 
lar maladies, thus disposing of facts which we might easily be- 
lieve by its own doctrine of the " communion of the saints " : for we 
can hardly admit that evil spirits do not know the method of com- 
munication which the " saints " practice. So we should have no 
difficulty in forcing all believers in the New Testament to believe 
in obsession and to set about mastering what it implies. 

Nevertheless, obsession is not lightly to be believed. It is quite 
as conceivable as ordinary communication with the dead, but it is 
not so easily proved. In our search for scientific proof of survival 
we have been dealing with honest personalities, ready to make con- 
cessions and to supply evidence of their identity. But experience 
has shown that mischievous personalities are desirous of conceal- 
ing instead of revealing their identity. In default of evidence to 
the contrary, we should have to accept the orthodox verdict of 
medicine and psychiatry, which explain obsessions as cases of dual 
or multiple personality, hysteria, or some form of insanity. It 
required ten years of investigation, after I had admitted the ex- 
istence of spirits is credible, to convince me of the possibility of 
obsession; then followed some years of work to accumulate the 
facts which make it scientifically probable. 

Most people are familiar with the campaign of the church and 

38s 



386 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

the law against belief in witchcraft throughout the Western world; 
the medical explanation was sufficient, if not to eliminate the 
phenomena, at least to eradicate the belief in obsession. But, in 
reporting on some of the investigations in the Piper case, Professor 
James said that, though hesitating to accept the spiritistic theory, 
he was certain that belief in demoniac possession would have its in- 
nings again. He lived long enough to see the report on the Thomp- 
son-Gifford case published in the American Proceedings; it was 
that case which overcame my resistance to the idea of obsession, 
though I felt and said that it alone was hardly adequate evidence. 

There can be no a priori argument against obsession after the 
existence of discarnate spirits in any form has been proved or even 
shown to be possible or probable. The process employed to es- 
tablish the personal identity of spirits may well be used by mis- 
chievous or ignorant personalities in order to disturb the normal 
life of the living. It is not at all likely that sane and intelligent 
spirits are the only ones to exert influence from a transcendental 
world. If they can act on the living there is no reason why others 
cannot do so as well. The process in either case would be the 
same ; we should have to possess adequate proof that nature puts 
more restrictions upon ignorance and evil in the next life than in 
this, in order to establish the certainty that mischievous personali- 
ties do not or cannot perform nefarious deeds. The objection 
that such a doctrine makes the world seem evil applies equally to 
the situation in the present life. 

Obsession, a term used by psychiatry to denote fixed ideas, is 
employed by psychic researchers to denote the abnormal influence 
of spirits on the living. It does not mean ordinary mediumship, 
which either may occur without disturbing normal life or may 
be a merely temporary interruption of that normal life. It repre- 
sents a dissociation of functions, varying from the slightest dis- 
turbance of normal personality to complete displacement. But in 
all cases it represents an influence foreign to the organism instead of 
within it, due to the action of a discarnate spirit or spirits, whether 
the influence be voluntary or involuntary. The process by which 
this influence is exercised may be the same as that which is em- 
ployed to communicate desirable messages, but it is conducted either 



OBSESSION 387 

with a very different purpose or as the result of laws which happen 
to involve ignorant spirits in toils from which they sometimes can- 
not easily escape. 

The phenomena which I have ultimately come to think are due to 
foreign action, do not appear to be evidence of any such invasions. 
They are not like the facts which we have been accustomed to regard 
as evidence of the existence of spirits or of supernormal knowledge. 
They appear to be morbid states of the subject afflicted. Many 
cases of hysteria, of dementia precox, of paranoia, of manic de- 
pressive insanity, and of dual or multiple personality do not show 
any superficial indications of spirit invasion. The psychiatrist has 
been quite right in refusing to diagnose them as obsessions. Cases 
of dual and multiple personality immediately suggest obsessions, 
because of the dissociation between the personalities. But the lack 
of evidence of supernormal knowledge and of the identity of the 
spirits in some, if not in all, of these cases, at first prevented the 
application of a spiritistic explanation to them. 

But I found a way to supply this evidence by the method of 
cross-reference. I take the patient to a psychic under conditions 
that exclude from the psychic all normal knowledge of the situa- 
tion, and see what happens. If the same phenomena that occur 
in the patient are repeated through the medium; if I am able to 
establish the identity of the personalities affecting the patient; or 
if 1 can obtain indubitably supernormal information connecting the 
patient with the statements made through the psychic, I have reason 
to regard the mental phenomena observed in the patient as of ex- 
ternal origin. While the experiences of the patient may not in them- 
selves be evidence of the supernormal or of foreign invasion, the 
repetition of the same experiences through the psychic, who is igno- 
rant of them, establishes their supernormal character without ques- 
tion. In a number of cases, persons whose condition would ordina- 
rily be described as due to hysteria, dual, or multiple personality, de- 
mentia precox, paranoia, or some other form of mental disturbance, 
showed unmistakable indications of invasion by foreign and dis- 
carnate agencies. 

It is not necessary to suppose that these invasions were the pri- 
mary cause of the trouble. Organic lesions sometimes open the way 



388 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

to all sorts of other disorders. Functional disturbances may be 
due to invasions of the discarnate, but in some instances these in- 
fluences were preceded by organic derangements or by accidents. 
The hypothesis of obsession does not set aside physiological causes. 
It designates only a concomitant cause or disturbance in the situa- 
tion, unless in certain types of purely functional trouble the dis- 
carnate be primary and sufficient cause. Obsession is not incom- 
patible with hysteria, dual or multiple personality, and the like. 
It only adds to the complications of the phenomena and may lead to 
the consideration of more causes than have hitherto been recognized. 

We do not need accept the spiritistic hypothesis in order to admit 
the possibility of obsession. If we believe in telepathy, we believe 
in a process which makes possible the invasion of personality by 
some one at a distance. Telepathy not only involves the transmis- 
sion of thoughts from one person to another, but very distinctly 
implies that these thoughts can exercise a causal influence on the 
percipient. Psychology assumes that only physical stimuli, through 
the intermediation of the body, can affect the mind. But telepathy 
assumes that one mind affects another. This very supposition con- 
tains the possibility of all that we observe in obsession, if it be 
proved to exist. Consequently there is no need of insisting that 
spirits are the sole agents in obsession. We might point out that 
there would be no hope for a cure if telepathy caused the obsession, 
as we might never be able to find the personality guilty of producing 
the effect on the patient, and so would not be in a position to exor- 
cize him or to teach him to avoid using his influence. Telepathy 
thus used would be Mrs. Eddy's " malicious animal magnetism," 
which is only obsession disguised so as not to imply the spiritistic 
theory, which she once believed and later rejected. But such an 
explanation represents the malady as incurable, since on this 
hypothesis we cannot get at the causes. On the spiritistic theory it 
is possible to find the causes and to deal with them. 

But examination of the actual facts will show not only that tele- 
pathy is wholly irrelevant to the problem, but also that only spirit- 
istic agencies rationally explain the phenomena, while the admission 
of the existence of spirits on other evidence prepares the way, 
more definitely than does telepathy, for acceptance of the possibility 



OBSESSION 389 

of obsession. The whole case will rest upon the special nature of 
the facts obtainable in support of the hypothesis. 

If we could interpret every case of psychic invasion as obsession, 
the case would be won in all instances where the supernormal is dis- 
coverable. It would make the term synonymous with mediumship ; 
perhaps in principle they really are the same. But the term has 
usually been confined to those cases which do not show the usual 
type of evidence for spirit invasion. The term denominates ab- 
normal cases, in which the dissociation and disintegration of normal 
life has been so great as thoroughly to demoralize it. This is not 
true of what may be called normal mediumship. There is no hard 
and fast line between the two types, except the application of the 
term obsession to cases that do not in themselves contain evidence 
for the supernormal and that are characterized by clear and dis- 
tinct evidence of the abnormal. 

Now as the supernormal is not superficially apparent in these 
cases, we cannot assume them to be instances of obsession unless 
we can produce evidence that the ordinary medical diagnosis is 
either incorrect or imperfect. Mrs. Piper, Mrs. Smead, Mrs. 
Chenoweth, Mrs. Verrall, Mrs. Holland and others gave unmis- 
takable evidence for the supernormal, which could be proved by 
very simple methods. All we had to do was to take strangers to 
them and record the subsequent events. But cases of hysteria and 
of dual or multiple personality furnished no such revelations of 
the personal identity of the dead. Hence we had either to contrive 
a new method of experiment or to surrender the diagnosis to 
psychiatry. 

The method of experiment adopted, when the influence of dis- 
carnate spirits was suspected, was that of cross-reference. If the 
same phenomena that had occurred in the patient were repeated 
through the psychic, and if this repetition was accompanied by un- 
mistakable evidence of supernormal knowledge relevant to the case, 
there would be reason at least to raise the question of obsession. If 
the same personalities as those constituting the dual or multiple 
personalities were manifest in a trained psychic, we should have 
strong evidence that they were not in the first instance merely sub- 
jective creations. This sort of experiment was tried for the pur- 



390 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

pose of seeing whether we could secure evidence of external person- 
ality in what seemed to be merely an abnormal state in the patient. 
We have tried this experiment in a number of cases with the same 
result; a similar result never manifested itself when normal per- 
sons were the sitters or subjects of experiment. 

The case which first suggested obsession to me was that of Mr. 
Thompson. The invading agent was Mr. Gifford. Mr. Thomp- 
son, after a period in which he felt compelled to paint in Gifford's 
style, was unable to resume his profession as a silversmith. It 
nauseated him. This indicated to me that the invasion had brought 
about some sort of organic alteration in his interests and physiologi- 
cal habits. The persistent invasion of Gifford to accomplish his 
purpose and the organic alteration of the man's habits and tastes 
suggested, though it did not prove, obsession. It made me resolve 
to investigate similar cases until I should have ascertained what was 
going on. In the experiences of Mr. Thompson there was no evi- 
dence that would convince the scientific man, especially the student 
of abnormal psychology, that he was the subject of discarnate in- 
vasion. Indeed two physicians diagnosed the case as paranoia, and 
one of them, without offering to cure it, expressed a desire to watch 
the progress of the malady. But cross-reference proved very 
clearly that the spirit of Mr. Gifford, whatever the motive, was be- 
hind the phenomena; and the abnormality of the effect on the pro- 
fession of Mr. Thompson suggested that something more than 
mediumship was manifested. 

Soon afterwards I came across three other cases which every 
psychiatrist would diagnose as hysteria, two of them perhaps as 
incipient paranoia. One of these persons w^as writing stories pur- 
porting to come from a well-known author who, had died some years 
before and about whom the automatist knew very little. x\nother 
was engaged in musical composition both for the piano and the 
opera. There were decided symptoms of hysteria in her case. 
The third case showed no disagreeable indications of dissociation, 
but was doing automatic writing purporting to come from Emma 
Abbott and was singing under the same inspiration. All three 
were taken to Mrs. Chenoweth under conditions that excluded all 
normal knowledge of the persons and the facts. The personalities 



OBSESSION 391 

purporting to direct, the subjects claimed to communicate through 
Mrs. Chenoweth and so to be the instigators of the phenomena ob- 
served. None of the three cases was the victim of serious dissoci- 
ation save the first, who was rendered incapable of earning her 
living. When the work with the psychic had been done, however, 
she recovered her balance. None of them had reached a stage in 
which physicians would have assigned them to an asylum. They 
were not cases that would pass for victims of obsession, in the 
sense of constant persecution by transcendental agencies. Such 
persecution is the distinguishing characteristic of cases that demand 
special treatment. 

Another case, that of a young girl just entering womanhood, was 
diagnosed by two physicians as dementia precox or paranoia. 
There were no apparent symptoms of physical degeneration; but 
she became perfectly stupid, so that she could not always rationally 
answer questions of the simplest kind. When a narrative of the 
child's experiences came to my attention I at once saw possibilities 
that I should not have suspected until I had observed and proved 
what was happening in the several cases outlined above ; and I re- 
solved to try the experiment of investigation with the child. I soon 
found that the phenomena were instigated from without and got 
into contact with a personality whose influence on the child can be 
diseussed only in a medical work. I tried two psychics, with the 
same general result. We had not the means to continue the work 
until we obtained a perfect cure. But there was unmistakable evi- 
dence that the phenomena were of foreign instigation, though af- 
fected by the subconsciousness of the child. There was no super- 
ficial evidence of foreign stimuli until cross-reference was applied 
to the case. 

The next case, that of Doris Fischer, is most important; but the 
summary of it must be preceded by a brief account of the celebrated 
case of Sally Beauchamp, treated by Dr. Morton Prince of Boston. 
Doris Fischer had one personality so like the mischievous personality 
of Sally Beauchamp that a comparison between the two is necessary. 

Sally Beauchamp manifested four chief personalities; that is, 
there appeared to be four different persons inhabiting the one body. 
These were designated as B. I, B. II, B. Ill or Sally, and B. IV. 



392 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

None of them knew anything about the others, except that Sally 
knew the other three, knowing B. IV only partly. There was no 
connection of memory between them except that Sally knew and 
remembered what the others thought and did as well as what she 
herself knew and did; she knew what B. IV thought but not what 
B. IV did. These are the complications; but the important point 
is that she w^as mischievous, like one of the main personalities in 
Doris Fischer. The Beauchamp case was never tested for evidence 
of spirit agencies. All that we can say is that Sally showed four 
characteristics that we find in controls of mediums : ( i) she claimed 
to be a spirit; (2) she did automatic writing; (3) she was always 
conscious; (4) she had no perception of time. These character- 
istics seem not to have marked the chief secondary personality in 
the case of Doris Fischer. 

When a child of three and a half years, Doris Fischer was picked 
up by her drunken father and thrown down on the floor so violently 
that her head was injured ; from that time on she suffered from dis- 
sociation or dual personality until the death of her mother when 
Doris was seventeen years of age. Until the death of her mother 
there were but two personalities manifested, the normal Doris and 
a secondary personality who called herself Margaret. The shock 
of her mother's death increased the number of personalities to five. 
The addition to the family, so to speak, consisted of personalities 
called Sick Doris, Sick Real Doris and Sleeping Margaret. This 
last never appeared except in sleep. Margaret might appear at any 
time and stayed for a short or a long time apparently according to 
caprice. She was mischievous, like Sally Beauchamp. Sally would 
play all sorts of pranks on the other personalities. B. I was the 
especial object of her enmity. Sally would take control and go out 
to the country on the last street car and then leave the girl; that is, 
let the normal self come in, and the girl would have to walk back 
home, arriving exhausted. Or Sally would put into a box spiders, 
toads, or other animals of which the normal self had a horror, and 
leave them on the bureau so that when the normal self opened the 
box she would have a severe fright. She would take or lose money 
belonging to the normal self and thus embarrass the girl when she 
found that her money was gone. Margaret in the Doris Fischer 



OBSESSION 393 

case would play similar tricks on Doris, the normal self. She 
would steal aprons or candies from places where Doris was work- 
ing, so that Doris would be blamed for the theft. That is, Mar- 
garet would come — she was not discoverable by strangers, since 
the child would go on with her work as if normal — and steal and 
hide w^hat she wanted. The normal self, knowing nothing about it, 
had to take the blame. Margaret would hide the child's books at 
school so that the normal self could not study her lessons. She 
had a bureau drawer at home into which Doris, the normal self, 
was not allowed to look. There Margaret would keep things she 
wanted or had stolen, and if Doris accidentally went to it and found 
something of her own or Margaret's, Margaret would scratch the 
body until it bled all over, and the normal self would have to endure 
the pains and sores. Margaret would come in and eat the candy 
that Doris had bought for herself. Margaret would take horses 
from the livery stable and ride them into the country, but would 
return them after her ride. She would rush down to the river and 
take swims with all the child's clothes on ; the river was very dirty 
at its best, with much of the filth of a large city floating on its sur- 
face. The normal self had no memory of the acts, and could not 
understand the effects. 

Margaret did not claim to be a spirit, as did Sally in the Beau- 
champ case; neither did she manifest other qualities of a control, 
such as ignorance of time, continuous consciousness, and automatic 
writing. She seemed to be only a dissociated group of the mental 
states of Doris. Sleeping Margaret, however, after claiming not 
to be a spirit, at last came to believe and to insist that she was. 
But she could give no evidence of her claim. Sick Doris was very 
stupid; when she was in control the girl seemed to be very ill, but 
when the personality changed she would be instantly perfectly well 
without a feeling or appearance of illness. The transformation 
was astonishing. 

In all these manifestations there was not the slightest trace of 
spirits. Margaret occasionally exhibited telepathic powers; but as 
soon as Dr. Walter H. Prince, who had adopted her to effect a cure, 
began to experiment with the telepathy, Margaret ceased to show 
what she could do. Sleeping Margaret directed the cure of the 



394 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

child and the removal of Margaret in a manner that suggested super- 
normal knowledge. Her knowledge usually, however, was limited 
to the normal memories and knowledge of Doris, and, when you 
tested her on matters that spirits ought to know, she wholly disap- 
pointed you. She could not tell what spirits should tell. Conse- 
quently there was no apparent reason to classify Doris Fischer with 
the mediumistic type or to treat her personalities as anything but 
dissociated groups of memories of the girl herself. Whatever the 
explanation, each personality had to be treated as a group or series 
of mental states separated from the other group or series by am- 
nesia. There was no evidence of such personal identity as we have 
to insist upon finding when we test the claims of communicating 
spirits. Whether the " split " was between different groups of 
mental states or between different brain cells, the phenomena 
showed slight indication of being due to foreign personalities. 
They were just mysteriously separated groups of mental states 
simulating real individuals in their memories and behavior. 

I had resolved on experiment with the case as soon as Dr. Walter 
H. Prince had succeeded in his treatment of the girl sufficiently for 
me to bring her from California to Boston. Nothing had ever 
been published about the case and even the community in which he 
lived did not know that the girl was an invalid of the type above 
described. I brought her all the way from California and had her 
stay in the country some eighteen or twenty miles from Boston, 
coming in each morning for the experiments for a few weeks; I 
then kept her for a time at my own home in New York while the 
experiments continued, and then took her again to Boston for more 
immediate contact with the psychic ; finally I allowed her to return 
to California, while I continued experiments for some months more. 
As usual, I did not allow Mrs. Chenoweth to see the patient at any 
time. The detailed record shows for itself the results, of which 
we can give only a very brief summary here. 

The mother of Doris, who had been dead eight years, first com- 
municated. She did excellent work to prove her identity, by trivial 
incidents which were unusually good for the purpose. It is not 
necessary to summarize them here ; but they, together with the evi- 
dence of supernormal knowledge, establish the presumption that 



OBSESSION 395 

what she said about the condition of Doris at least has to be reck- 
oned with in the solution of the problem. The mother, however, 
seems not to have suspected that her daughter was obsessed by mis- 
chievous discarnate personalities. The first hint of obsession came 
from Dr. Hodgson, who came to communicate; he compared the 
case to that of Sally Beauchamp and remarked that it was as *' im- 
portant as any that Morton Prince ever had." Dr. Hodgson had 
seen and experimented with Miss Beauchamp when he was living 
and knew Dr. Morton Prince personally. I had undertaken the 
experiments partly to see if any comparison with the Beauchamp 
case could be made ; but when he had made the comparison he went 
on to indicate that Doris's malady was a case of obsession, saying 
that we should have to reckon with a little Indian in connection with 
the case. After her cure, Doris developed automatic writing with 
the planchette. The personality instigating this writing purported 
to be a guide for the girl and told a few things that had happened 
in the development of the case, which I was able to verify in Cali- 
fornia. Then came the little Indian personality to whom Dr. 
Hodgson had referred ; she gave the name Minnehaha or Laughing 
Water. This name is too well known to be significant, and her 
identity could not be proved. But the record shows that she was 
well acquainted with incidents in Doris Fischer's life. She de- 
scribed what had gone on and defined the nature of obsession 
very well in what she said of the vicious personalities associated 
with it. 

As Sleeping Margaret had claimed to be a spirit, I tried to verify 
her statement. Margaret made no such claims. But in my first 
series of experiments no trace of either of them appeared. I then 
took Doris to New York and had a seance with vSleeping Margaret 
to know why she had not communicated in Boston. Her answer 
was that she did not get a chance, as there were so many others 
there. I then asked her to come to Boston while Doris remained 
in New York, and to communicate with me. She said that she 
could not do it; that she could not go so far away from Doris. 
But she promised to try, if I took her back to Boston. I did so, 
but I received no trace of Sleeping Margaret as a communicator. 
I then resolved on a new experiment. Dr. Hodgson had said that 



396 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

Starlight, a little Indian control of Mrs. Chenoweth, had discovered 
Minnehaha, and I thought I might find out whether she could get 
into contact with Sleeping Margaret, if the latter was a spirit at all. 
I arranged the experiment so that Mrs. Chenoweth would not know 
that I was dealing with the same case and so that she would seem 
to be sitting for some stranger. Again I did not allow Mrs. Cheno- 
weth to see Doris. As the experiment had to be carried out when 
Doris was asleep I had her go to bed and be asleep when I admitted 
Mrs. Chenoweth. I had the face, hands and body of Doris covered 
up so that she could not be seen. As soon as Mrs. Chenoweth went 
into the trance, Starlight saw Minnehaha and tried to give her name, 
but did not succeed. She got " water lily " and then said, in ac- 
cordance with the pictographic process : " I see, like a waterfall, 
just like water falling over and whether it is Water Fall or — some- 
thing like that." Then she remarked : " She laughs after she 
shows me the water." Readers will remark that the name was 
actually given in this description ; but it is strange that the subliminal 
could not do better when the name had been given before clearly 
enough, and was presumably already known, according to skeptical 
theories, by the subliminal. But Starlight saw no one else except 
the mother and " the spirit of the girl herself," partly out of the 
body and partly in, as she stated, remarking that, if she would go 
out farther she could communicate with the dead. Sleeping Mar- 
garet had not shown herself able to do this ; I had thus been unable 
to prove her a spirit. On the contrary Starlight insisted that she 
w^as " the spirit of the girl " herself, and later the work made this 
interpretation clearer. When I resumed my regular work at the 
next sitting, Minnehaha came ; she named both the Margarets and 
indicated that Sleeping Margaret was what Starlight had said. 
Then Margaret was put to work to '' confess " what she had done 
to the child. Margaret told a number of the tricks and pranks she 
had played on the girl and then followed a number of other per- 
sonalities said to have been concerned in the phenomena observed 
and reported by Dr. Walter F. Prince. Various events in the life 
of Doris which thus came out indicated that Margaret was a spirit, 
though there was no evidence to that effect in the experiences of 
Doris. Minnehaha terminated the experiments by recounting a 



OBSESSION 397 

large number of facts which had occurred in Cahfornia after Doris 
returned home. They do not directly bear upon the subject of 
obsession, but in so far as evidence of supernormal knowledge en- 
ables us to assign limits to subliminal influence, they are consonant 
with the evidence for obsession. 

I have known three other instances, none of which have been re- 
ported, which show the same kind of evidence that foreign agencies 
can perform a great deal of mischief, when they get access to the 
mind or body of a living person. I cannot summarize these cases 
here. Suffice it to say that they add to the number of cases in 
which we have to reckon with an influence that has not yet been 
admitted to the archives of psychiatry. 

It is important to remark at the outset of the explanation of ob- 
session that I do not mean this idea to be a substitute for hysteria, 
dementia precox, paranoia or other maladies, nor is it a rival ex- 
planation. Even the controls stated through Mrs. Chenoweth that 
obsession might itself be caused by disease or accident, thus con- 
ceding that lesions might give rise to it and hence that we are not 
to set aside organic and functional troubles in body and mind when 
acknowledging that obsession by spirits is an accompaniment of the 
trouble. It is quite conceivable that any disturbance to healthy func- 
tions, bodily or mental, might create conditions in which accidental 
connections with the discarnate would be established and w^ould 
open the way to all sorts of voluntary and involuntary invasions. 
At least that is the theory of the spirits themselves, and the facts 
tend to support the contention. 

It must therefore be thoroughly understood that we are not con- 
troverting physiological or psychiatrical explanations. The only 
revolution that we wish to introduce into medicine is the denial of 
the limits ordinarily assigned to causes of disease and methods of 
treatment. The terms hysteria, dementia precox, paranoia, manic 
depressive insanity, and epilepsy are largely descriptive ; the causes 
are revealed only by the autopsy and other such methods. Obses- 
sion does not displace other causes, but adds to them another factor. 
It is a cause, not a mere description, because it implies that an ex- 
ternal agency produces the phenomena. A foreign influence is 
added to the subjective conditions. 



398 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

We cannot as yet say exactly how these foreign influences act. 
All that we contend is, that the facts are evidence that they do act; 
it remains for the future to determine how. This will be no easy 
task. We have but touched the surface in this problem, and we 
may have to experiment with a thousand cases in order to fix upon 
any generalization about the results or to determine rules of pro- 
cedure and therapeutics. At any rate, we cannot generalize from 
the few cases that have yielded to investigation. We have still to 
experiment and to develop methods of healing. 

As to how obsession takes place, we can resort only to specula- 
tion. We have little data to go upon at present in this limitless 
field. I have alluded to telepathy as making possible the influence 
of mind upon mind independently of normal methods of causation, 
and said that we need not adopt a spiritistic hypothesis to explain 
the facts. But one cannot examine these facts and be impressed 
with telepathic explanations. When the existence of discarnate 
spirits is once admitted, we have to assume some sort of transcen- 
dental process as the method of obsession. Whatever the process 
is in telepathy, it is conceivably applicable to obsession. But the 
means are not the first thing to be determined. The frequency of 
occurrence is more important at present than the cause. We can 
hope to understand obsession if we can get at the reason for its 
frequency. 

Many features in the ordinary communications between the dead 
and the living suggest where we must look if we are to understand 
the phenomena, even though we have not as yet brought them under 
experimental control. In the first place, even in cases of medium- 
ship, in which the process of communication is probably the same 
as in obsession, though under the control of more intelligent per- 
sonalities, it is clear that many messages are involuntary. The 
communicator cannot always determine what he shall send. If 
the spirit present does not know his business, he may cause evils of 
all sorts without knowing what he is doing. If he knows what he 
is doing, the result will depend on his character. In addition to 
these factors, proximity of a spirit to an impressionable subject may 
expose the latter to either intentional or unintentional influences 
from the transcendental world. Obsession may be accidental rather 

/ 



OBSESSION 399 

than purposive; but, when once invaded, the subject is an open door 
for the transmission of anything that comes his way. 

For all that we know consciousness is a form of energy with its 
own laws of transmission and inhibition. If it be such, we can 
well surmise how the way might often be accidentally opened to the 
reception of foreign influences which may lead to disastrous results. 
But these influences are as often purposive and malicious as acci- 
dental ; the problem is to ascertain how we may practically deal with 
such cases. The orderly or disorderly impingement of the spiritual 
world upon the embodied soul in the physical world depends on a 
combination of circumstances which we have not yet exactly deter- 
mined. The influence may be found to have analogies with me- 
chanical forces ; its benevolent or malevolent operation may depend 
on our ability to regulate the conditions that make the influence pos- 
sible, or to guide the agencies into a course of action that will not 
interfere with the normal life of men. That is no easy task. The 
cures effected have required much time and patience, the use of 
psychotherapeutics of an unusual kind, and the employment of 
psychics to get into contact with the obsessing agents and thus to 
release the hold which such agents have, or to educate them to vol- 
untary abandonment of their persecutions. 

This is not the place for details of this question. All that I de- 
sire to do in this discussion is to suggest the wide application of 
the hypothesis in the treatment of cases regarded as incurably in- 
sane. It is the consequence to the theories and therapeutics of 
insanity that is important here. Dr. Meyer Solomon of Chicago, 
when reviewing the case of Doris Fischer, said that if our explana- 
tion of that case be true, we should have " to apply it to all hysteria, 
dementia precox, paranoia, manic-depressive insanity, and genius." 
I am not yet prepared to generalize or to determine extensions of 
the hypothesis. But we have proved enough to suggest the possi- 
bilities; and any physician who recognizes them and the facts will 
open his mind to revolutionary possibilities in the diagnosis and 
cure of cases usually regarded as hopelessly insane. Doris Fischer 
was so regarded by the physicians who saw her. Dr. Walter 
Prince, however, cured her by care and suggestion; until she be- 
came so healthy and rational that she was able to manage a chicken 



400 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

farm of large dimensions, to serve as Vice President of the Poultry 
Association in her home county, and to preside at meetings with 
tact and control. One case that I myself cured by hypnotic sug- 
gestion in three days has been perfectly well for five or six years, 
earning his living with his violin on the stage. He was sent to 
Bellevue Hospital in the belief that he was incurable. 

I repeat that I am not prepared to make generalizations on the 
subject, either with reference to diagnosis or cure. But I do know 
that every single case of dissociation and paranoia to which I have 
applied cross-reference has yielded to the method and proved the 
existence of foreign agencies complicated with the symptoms of 
mental or physical deterioration. It is high time to prosecute ex- 
periments on a large scale in a field that promises to have as much 
practical value as any application of the scalpel and the microscope. 



CHAPTER XXV 
MEDIUMSHIP 

MANY people would like to know what mediumship is, or 
by what marks we can discover and recognize it. The 
briefest answer to such a query is, either that we do not 
know what the marks are ; or that they are phenomena which can 
be proved to be genuinely supernormal, representing a communica- 
tion between different minds. But we can hardly dismiss the sub- 
ject with so summary an account. 

Usually in telling what a thing is, we have to give it a place in a 
known class, with some distinguishing mark that defines it as a spe- 
cial type in that class. There is also a descriptive definition which 
names the various marks or properties by which the term defined 
may be known. There are no distinguishing marks of the physi- 
cal kind to describe mediums, or to mark them off from other 
people ; the only mark is the ability to give supernormal information 
about the discarnate world, though the term is loosely applied to a 
person who can give any supernormal manifestation, since spir- 
itualists explain all such phenomena due to the intervention of 
spirits. Etymologically the term is derived from the Latin word 
" medium," which denotes the " middle " or the intermediary be- 
tween two things, the way to reach them, the means of communica- 
tion. It was hence adopted to denote the agency which intervenes 
between the physical and the transcendental world. The ordinary 
analogy is to an electric wire, which is the " medium " of communi- 
cation in telegraphy, whereby the agent transmits messages from 
one point to another. But the analogy is not exact, as the processes 
involve no known resemblances to electrical action. The only 
means of communicating with the dead has been found to be a living 
organism capable of connecting the two worlds. 

But this definition of mediumship depends wholly upon the phe- 
nomena in question and does not enable us to point out any marks 

401 



402 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

or characteristics other than the very facts to be proved; whereas 
what every one desires to know is what particular characteristic 
enables the medium to do what is claimed. I do not know of any 
physical characteristics whatever that might lead us to designate 
a medium without testing her for supernormal phenomena. One 
Frenchman thought he had discovered a spot in the eye that indi- 
cated mediumship. But I see no evidence of the truth of this dis- 
covery and find nothing in my experience to confirm it. So far as 
I know, the only mental characteristic is hysteria. But the appli- 
cation of the term " hysteria," apart from a consideration of the 
circumstances, cannot be indiscriminately made. All depends on 
the definition of hysteria. In the older meaning of the term, which 
described a nervous and excitable person who could not exercise 
self-control, hysteria is certainly no mark of mediumship. That 
type is seldom or never marked by psychic abilities. But in later 
times the term " hysteria " has come to mean more technically, and 
at the same time more inclusively, the presence of automatism or 
subconscious action, in the form of dissociation. The terms " hys- 
teria " and " dissociation " are largely synonymous, or at least 
denote the same general phenomena. Liabihty to what is called 
automatism is in many, if not all, cases a symptom of hysteria. 

Now it is probable that dissociation and automatism characterize 
all mediums, though there are types that betray no evidence of these 
conditions, except the production of certain results. There are 
instances within my own observation in which the subject himself 
discovered the mediumship or psychic abilities only by the occur- 
rence of supernormal coincidences in his experience, without any 
apparent alteration of the normal conditions of body or mind. But 
it is true that automatism is characteristic of all well-developed me- 
diumship that has come within my own observation. This means 
that automatic writing, automatic visions, or automatic voices occur, 
and may be regarded as a fundamental characteristic of medium- 
ship. It is true that automatism and dissociation often occur 
without any traces of the supernormal or of mediumship in its 
narrower import of communication with the dead. But their pres- 
ence in developed mediums suggests that the instances which ex- 
hibit no supernormal capacities are simply undeveloped cases ; that 



MEDIUMSHIP 403 

perhaps the automatism and dissociation are absolutely necessary 
to mediumship, but that the development of them into sources of 
supernormal knowledge depends on the establishing of rapport with 
the transcendental world instead of confining it to the physical 
world. That has been largely my own experience, and only the 
fact that this experience has not been extensive enough to justify 
generalization prevents me from stating that as a law. It is a good 
hypothesis on which to work, and we may ultimately find that the 
instances of supernormal coincidence which do not superficially 
betray dissociation nevertheless contain it in a latent form so ad- 
justed to the normal life that its existence is not easily detected. 

At any rate it is fairly certain that cases of dissociation and au- 
tomatism are worth investigating for the development of medium- 
ship or psychic powers of some kind. This means that we may 
regard automatism and dissociation as fundamental marks of me- 
diumship, though they do not constitute all that is necessary to 
achieve the desired result. Rapport with a transcendental world 
either of other living minds or of discarnate personalities, may be 
the further characteristic necessary to make the mediumship com- 
plete. 

It will probably require a long time accurately to determine the 
nature and limits of mediumship. There has been, so far, no effort 
to define it save by the presence of the supernormal. Critics and 
skeptics, especially in the fields of medicine and psychology, have 
tried often enough to discredit mediumship by calHng it hysteria or 
dissociation. Hysteria at best is but a descriptive term. It is not 
in the least explanatory, and does not carry with it any clear impli- 
cations of the cause. The skeptic wants us to conceive hysteria 
and dissociation as explanations of phenomena which at least super- 
ficially appear to be supernormal. But I am going here to insist 
that hysteria, dissociation, and automatism are in no respect rivals 
or contradictories of mediumship. They are conditions of its ex- 
istence, at least apparently and in most cases. The only legitimate 
factor of the skeptic's contention is, that if nothing more than au- 
tomatism is present, we are without evidence of actual medium- 
ship, in so far as mediumship implies the supernormal. We have 
neither explained the automatism nor succeeded in setting up a con- 



\ 



404 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

ception that displaces genuine mediumship, whose distinguishing 
mark is facts exhibiting evidence of supernormal knowledge, no 
matter what the physiological and psychological condition of the 
subject. The question is, whether there is a connection between 
the mental phenomena of the hysteric, automatist, insane patient, 
or other person, and some event foreign to this subject's knowledge. 
The psychic researcher can admit, if the facts require it, that all 
supernormal phenomena are accompanied by abnormal mental states 
in the subject. The crucial question is, first, whether the phe- 
nomena are referable to subjective causes or to causes external to 
the mind affected ; and second, whether the external cause, if it exist, 
is an ordinary physical stimulus or is independent of normal sense- 
perception. We are insisting only that supernormal phenomena 
cannot be classified under hysteria, automatism, dissociation, sec- 
ondary personality, or insanity as phenomena of a purely subjective 
nature. 

The first question as to the nature of mediumship is not its cause 
in the sense of its initiation or production, but its occurrence and 
classification. If certain phenomena bear no evidence oi the super- 
normal, but are accompanied by hysteria, automatism, etc., we may 
well describe them by these latter terms and admit that their cause 
is either functional derangement of the mind or some ordinary 
physical stimulus. But if the phenomena show an undoubted rela- 
tion to some external event not known to the subject and thus out- 
side the range of normal sense-perception, we can safely refuse to 
classify them with phenomena that are provably connected with 
normal causes. We can seek for causes other than physical stimuli, 
when we have determined whether the facts are included in the 
normal and abnormal field or are excluded from it. We name them 
supernormal when they are thus excluded. 

There is overwhelming evidence for the existence of supernormal 
experience, whether manifested in telepathy, clairvoyance, or com- 
munication with the dead. It is certain that there is a vast field of 
\ facts not explained by hysteria, automatism, dissociation, secondary 
personality, or insanity. These facts suffice to indicate some ac- 
ceptable meaning for mediumship. 

So much for the existence and the nature of mediumship. The 



MEDIUMSHIP 405 

explanation of it may await the future. What most people wish to 
know is some practical criterion for telling when it is present and 
what to do with it. This is perhaps the most important aspect of 
the present question. 

From what I have said about its nature and the marks which dis- 
tinguish it, it is perhaps clear that we have no final assurance of 
its presence until we actually prove the presence of supernormal 
phenomena. Prior to that stage of its development we may have 
to be content with hysteria, automatism, dissociation, and secondary 
personality, w^hich are limiting ideas, so to speak, or terms indicat- 
ing that evidence of the supernormal is lacking. No doubt there 
are many supernormal experiences besides those that are evidential ; 
but, in the present stage of the investigation, w^e have to be careful 
about accepting these. The nature of evidence of the supernormal 
has been fully explained in the chapter on '* Problems of Evidence " ; 
it includes both the negative characteristic of excluding fraud, the 
subconscious, chance coincidence and guessing, and the positive 
characteristic of a connection with some event not known by the 
subject. The criterion just defined applies to individual cases of 
mediumship. It requires that each incident shall at least be ex- 
plicable by a foreign and transcendental stimulus; the multiplica- 
tion of these individual test cases will prove the existence of the 
supernormal. But there are many non-evidential incidents and 
statements. They may refer to alleged events in a transcendental 
world, which no living person can verify. The primary test of 
genuine supernormality cannot apply to them. But if we can make 
a large number of records of similar statements issuing from real 
or alleged mediums w^ho w^ere not in communication with each 
other, their collective unity will have some value. If they all agree 
as to the nature of the transcendental world, and we can prove 
that the mediums had never read about the subject and were not 
familiar with any of the ideas expressed, the consistency of such 
records would have at least some suggestive value. 

Further than these suggestions, we know little of the conditions 
for mediumship, and there are at present no facilities for investigat- 
ing them. The remaining question is how to cultivate the faculty. 
On this point also we can give very few definite instructions and 



4o6 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

certainly no dogmatic rules. We as yet know too little to do more 
than ask for adequate investigation, which will require the careful 
study of all possible cases that may come to us. This is not possi- 
ble as yet; the cases have been too few to justify wide and confident 
generalizations. At one time, from my experience with a dozen 
instances, I felt secure in saying that there is no danger in the culti- 
vation of mediumship; but, after the discovery of obsession, I felt 
more cautious in giving assurance that there are no risks. I do not 
mean to assert or imply that it is generally dangerous, for it seems 
not to be ; often even in the cases which seem most alarming. But 
we know too little to say that it is either dangerous or not danger- 
ous. I am only certain that in many cases it has not only not been 
dangerous but has been beneficial, physically and mentally, to the 
subjects. There are also cases where the reverse is true. Hence 
it remains to determine the risks in each individual instance. 

The circumstances under which mediumship develops are vari- 
ous. It appears not to be the consequence of weak-mindedness, 
but may be induced by illness or accident. It is probable that the 
main condition of its development is passivity of will. This is com- 
patible with any degree of intelligence, even of strong will. If the 
individual can voluntarily suppress his will, he may develop me- 
diumistic qualities, though they are less likely to occur under these 
circumstances than in cases of natural passivity. It is probable 
that the relation of illness and accident to mediumship is due to the 
effect of such conditions in making the will passive at least until the 
mediumship has developed ; it may then become a fixed feature of 
the constitution. If it be due to natural passivity of will, the pre- 
vention of its harmful forms may be more difficult; but if the 
passivity is voluntary, the prevention of danger lies largely with 
the subject. 

The first thing to keep in mind regarding incipient mediumship 
is that it cannot easily be prevented. One cannot kill it by disre- 
garding it. It betokens the existence of physiological and psycho- 
logical conditions which the will did not produce; whether the 
psychic power is a casual product of temperament or the effect of 
outside agencies, it cannot be created at will. If desired, the con- 
dition might develop in time, but it will not come at command. One 



MEDIUMSHIP 407 

who finds that it suddenly manifests itself when he becomes inter- 
ested in the subject may rest assured that it was latent all the while. 
I have seen many cases in which the subject was wholly unaware of 
his power until either the ouija board or automatic writing was 
tried, when the faculty was at once manifest, though perhaps not 
developed to the point of doing systematic scientific work. On the 
other hand I have seen it in an incipient stage, with automatic writ- 
ing quite fluent and easy; and yet years of practice did not improve 
it. We cannot tell beforehand what will take place in any given 
instance. 

The proper manner of dealing with mediumship when observed is 
to treat it seriously. If it is not fully developed, treating it as a 
joke or using it for mere amusement exposes the subject to various 
kinds of danger. If spiritistic agencies are concerned, treating 
mediumship as a joke will only attract those on the other side whose 
temperaments make them look at it in the same way, and the subject 
will be exposed to the risk of unwelcome obsessions. I do not mean 
that it need be treated too solemnly, but that its phenomena should 
be seriously investigated, and not made an occasion for horse-fun. 
Intelligent spirits will not waste time in producing phenomena with 
fools. 

High motives and the persistent purpose to make good use of the 
faculty will protect the subject, at least in most cases, from the 
dangers of which I spoke. Probably the power can be protected 
by those on the other side; and, if the medium insists on making 
a serious use of the ability, he will soon be under the protection 
of the better type of personality, and unpleasant obsessions will not 
occur. Unpleasant phenomena may occur even under the best of 
protection, but they do not last long and are less likely to occur at all. 

In the early stages of development often there will appear wan- 
dering personalities, persons who have recently died and are seek- 
ing expression or communication through the psychic, or are put 
there to help in the preliminary development of the medium. The 
law involved in this occurrence we do not yet know, but it is fre- 
quent enough to be reckoned with, and to justify the stopping of 
such intrusions only when experience shows that their presence is 
neither normal nor helpful in the development of the psychic. 



4o8 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

Those chance comers seldom appear in fully developed psychics 
and then usually with the express permission of the guides or cjn- 
trols for various purposes. Among them the most frequent is 
the purpose to help some spirit from an earth-bound condition, or 
to help some living friend of the wanderer. If the situation is 
rightly managed, there is apparently no risk in admitting such a 
person. But one must firmly insist that the reason for his pres- 
ence be known, and while the correctness of the reason given can- 
not be proved, if it is clearly possible or not unreasonable, it is ad- 
visable to experiment until the effect is proved to be good or bad. 

The only danger, so far as I can see, is that of obsession. This 
can usually be prevented either by the use of a strong will against 
any disposition to disturb one's normal life, or by insisting that 
nothing but serious objects in the work shall be admitted. Weak- 
ness of will is dangerous, and the individual must learn to cultivate 
his own individuality and to insist that this shall not be invaded 
except for good purposes. The good person does not always pre- 
vent the bad spirit from coming nor does the bad person prevent 
the good spirit from coming. The attitude of will has more to do 
with the result than anything else. If the subject is intellectually 
and morally passive, or does not insist on evidence that any special 
presence is good, then any kind of determined foreign will can take 
control. The subject should be as critical as the unconvinced 
sitter. In this way obsessions can be prevented. 

The first thing to demand is that the alleged spirit either prove 
his own identity or help in proving that of others. The proof of 
identity will be most satisfactory when the facts are wholly un- 
known to the medium ; indeed it would require an immense number 
of coordinated facts, if known by the medium, to constitute ade- 
quate evidence. The proper thing to do is patiently and tolerantly 
to insist that incidents be given which the psychic does not know, 
preferably facts which the sitter also does not know but can verify. 

The greatest patience should be exercised. Often the personali- 
ties will leave if roughly addressed. The subconscious of the 
psychic must be made to feel that the sitter is serious and patient 
with the difficulties ; the cooperation of the subconscious is a neces- 
sary condition in securing evidence. If distrust be aroused in the 



MEDIUMSHIP 409 

medium, no matter how genuine he may be, good evidence cannot 
be obtained. The very first condition of success is to keep on good 
terms with the subconscious, by being serious and by exercising 
patience and tact. Opinions of the phenomena may be formed 
afterwards, but unfavorable judgments should not be revealed at 
the time. 

The real or alleged communicators should have as much time as 
may be necessary for their expression. The sitter may calmly and 
firmly insist that he cannot believe until the proper evidence is forth- 
coming, but he should be a spectator rather than a director of the 
phenomena, though judgment may be exercised as to the amount 
of time granted. The appearance of a mischievous personality 
should be received tolerantly and the nature of the w^ork explained, 
with the insistence that he conform to that aim. If he does not, the 
sitter can insist as firmly upon his leaving, and the best way to ac- 
complish this is to stop the work. When the work becomes sys- 
tematically developed, such invaders either will not appear or can be 
controlled by the guides. 

No matter what the sitter may think of the phenomena, he should 
treat them as if they were really spiritistic and keep his opinions 
to himself when experimenting. The conditions for successful 
communication with others, living or dead, by supernormal means 
are very delicate. Everything must be done to encourage favor- 
able states of mind in both medium and communicator. For this 
reason laymen often get better results than scientific men. At any 
rate the above method should be tried before any other. 

These are only general suggestions and not at all hard and fast 
rules. Much depends on the experience and good judgment of the 
experimenter. There may be further important conditions to be 
learned, either subordinate or in addition to these. But they will 
have to be ascertained by investigation in the future. My own 
experience is not large enough to enable me to dictate to others, 
or to say that such directions need not be revised. They are tenta- 
tive rules, whose application should be determined in the individual 
case by intelligent experience. They at least show the complexity 
of the situation, which is the first and most important fact to be 
learned by experimenters. The phenomena appear, superficially, 



410 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

to be very simple, but no greater delusion can be harbored. Super- 
ficially the circumstances seem to resemble the conversation of one 
person with another, with nothing intervening to hinder. This 
notion, however, is a mistake. Not only may there be two or more 
personalities between the communicator and the experimenter, but 
there may be a dozen spirits cooperating. The conditions for ob- 
taining messages are not what they are usually assumed to be. The 
laws regulating conversation between the living do not apply. All 
that we perceive is the automatic writing, or the automatic voice, 
or other phenomenon ; we do not see the complex machinery which 
makes the manifestation possible. Inter-mundane and intra-or- 
ganic difiQculties, perhaps of very large dimensions, may be present. 
We do not know their extent, but we have abundant reason to be- 
lieve that they are there, and the intelligent experimenter will reckon 
with their existence. 

The medium herself, when possible, and certainly those surround- 
ing her, should make, so far as possible, a verbatim record of what 
occurs, with as much stress on what those present say, as on what 
the alleged communicator says. Only in this way can we learn to 
understand and to regulate the phenomena. Everything should be 
recorded in chronological order and reported to some scientific body 
that will preserve the record for comparison with similar cases. In 
the past history of mankind everything of the sort, if not recorded, 
has died with the persons who knew the facts ; and nearly as often 
the record, when made, finds its way into the waste-basket, either 
during the life of the persons interested or very soon after they 
have died. This should not be. In every other department of ac- 
tivity, whether of business or science, we keep careful records ; any 
other course means that each generation has to begin afresh. Most 
of our science, however, is concerned with the physical world; and 
the spiritual side of man receives scant recognition. But it is the 
whole of nature that concerns us and afifects the larger interests of 
personality, and we have no excuse for the evasion of these larger 
interests. 



CHAPTER XXVI 
THE SUBCONSCIOUS 

THE explanation of certain experiences as due to the action 
of the subconscious plays a very prominent part in modem 
psychological discussions, and in none more than in dis- 
cussions of psychic research. For only a little more than a century 
has anything been definitely known about subconsciousness. Leib- 
nitz seems to have been the first who distinctly recognized it, though 
he gave it no technical name beyond that of " insensible percep- 
tions." Sir William Hamilton first called attention to it in Eng- 
land in his doctrine of '* latent mental modifications." He was fol- 
lowed by Carpenter with the theory of " unconscious cerebration." 
In Germany, Schopenhauer gave the idea currency as an important 
influence on human actions ; he was followed by Hartmann, who 
was inclined to explain everything by the action of the unconscious. 
But the term was not accurately defined, though there could be no 
doubt of the existence of mental processes below the threshold of 
normal consciousness. 

I shall not go at length into a very large and complex problem. 
Indeed I should not have to allude to the subconscious, but for the 
use which has been made of it as an alternative explanation to the 
spiritistic interpretation of certain phenomena. 

There are three terms more or less synonymous in this connec- 
tion. They are the "unconscious," the ''subconscious," and the 
" subliminal." For the general purposes of psychical research they 
all denote the same thing. There is sometimes need of a distinc- 
tion between the " unconscious " and the " subconscious," but there 
is no real difference between the " subliminal " and the " subcon- 
scious," and for our present purpose there is no need to insist upon 
technical differences. Occurrences whose cause Hes within the sub- 
ject of the experiences, and which show no satisfactory evidence 
of the activity of spirits, may be said to be caused by the subcon- 
scious mind of the subject. 

411 



412 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

Though the three terms are practically synonymous, they are 
more or less equivocal. In their relation to normal consciousness 
the terms indicate every function of the mind and body that is ex- 
cluded from the ken of normal consciousness. In a positive sense 
they denote certain mental states for w^hich we have indirect evi- 
dence, and which may have characteristics much like those of con- 
scious processes. Normal consciousness includes those mental 
states of which we have direct knowledge, such as sensation, self- 
consciousness, reasoning, emotion, pleasure and pain, and volition. 
Hence, in a negative sense, the terms " subliminal," " subconscious- 
ness " and often the " unconscious " refer merely to experiences 
that are not subject to direct introspection. In the widest import 
of such a negative meaning, intelligence would be wholly excluded 
from subconscious phenomena. Harmoniously with this view many 
persons actually maintained for a long time that such phenomena 
were wholly mechanical or non-intelligent. But they were con- 
fronted by the fact that certain phenomena not within the ken of 
normal introspection show all the characteristics of intelligent 
ability except that of being directly known. In other words, there 
is overwhelming evidence of intelligent action beyond the compass 
of introspection. That sufficed to give standing to the use of such 
tenns as " subconscious " and " subliminal " mentality. 

While we may regard them as purely negative terms — that is, 
as denoting the mental states of which we are not conscious, we 
cannot deny that the processes thus included have the characteristics 
of intelligent action, which is so fundamental an element in self- 
consciousness. Hence it becomes necessary in the discussion of the 
psychological problem to define the term more accurately than by 
its purely negative import. 

Some people regard the subconscious as equivalent to a " sec- 
ondary personality," something apart from and independent of the 
subject. These people suppose that secondary personality is like 
a spirit foreign to the body in which the phenomena manifest them- 
selves. This is a natural view for those who think of it as excluded 
from the normal personality and yet as having an intelligence of its 
own. But only untrained minds take this view. For psychologists 
the subconscious or subliminal comprises mental processes occur- 



THE SUBCONSCIOUS 413 

ring in the same organism with those normally introspected, but 
not within the ken of consciousness. That is, they are dissociated 
from normal consciousness. " Split consciousness," *' dissocia- 
tion," " alternating personality," ** secondary or multiple personal- 
ity," and similar terms denote that portion of the mental Hfe that 
is not directly known to the subject. But these states are mental 
functions like the normal in all respects save that of accessibility to 
introspection. 

The subconscious, therefore, is a name for mental phenomena 
dissociated from those directly or introspectively known. It does 
not denote separate or new functions of the mind, but the same 
functions or activities as those of normal consciousness. That is 
to say, the mind is one, though its processes are many. We have 
not yet distinctly defined the area of this subconscious. We know 
that it extends beyond the scope of normal action, but where it 
ceases we do not know. I do not mean by this that it is unlimited, 
for there is evidence enough to the contrary. In fact, it shows 
evidence of being at least as limited as normal consciousness in its 
reach, though it performs feats impossible to the normal mind. 

That the subconscious or subliminal exists is clearly proved by 
somnambulism and hypnosis. In these conditions a man acts ex- 
actly as if normal ; but, in his normal state, he remembers nothing 
that he has done while asleep, unless the somnambulism or hypnosis 
is very light. This state is probably similar to that of dreaming. 
We are aware of our ordinary dreams, which evidently occur in a 
transitional state between normal consciousness and true sleep or 
total unconsciousness. But we have evidence through the study 
both of somnambulism and hypnosis and of instances of dissocia- 
tion that some mental activities do not emerge either in dreams or 
in normal consciousness. They are true subliminal activities. 

In the margin of normal consciousness we may find traces of the 
subconsciousness, for example in abstraction and reverie. In these 
states we narrow the field of direct attention so that, though the 
mind may be distinctly aware of some objects or events in the nar- 
rower field of attention, it may not notice other incidents, even 
while it acts on the supposition of their presence and influence. 
Here the fields of normal and subliminal consciousness interpene- 



414 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

trate. If we read a book and become absorbed in it, any excitement 
of the mind will produce effects in the hand holding a pencil, though 
the reader may be unaware of any motion in the hand. Freud has 
shown that our dreams may reflect long-lost memories in symbolic 
forms, though we cannot ourselves explain their meaning or recall 
the facts until the psycho-analyst deciphers them and reminds us 
of them. In cases of secondary personality, like those of Ansel 
Bourne, Charles Brewin, and Doris Fischer, there is a perfect simu- 
lation of real and distinct personalities, of which the normal self 
knows nothing. They may be caused by foreign influences, but 
there is no internal evidence of such a source. 

The recognition of the subconscious is important as a limitation 
to the application of spiritistic explanations. Before the discovery 
of subliminal activities, philosophers and laymen alike sought the 
explanation of phenomena not known to normal consciousness in 
causes outside the mind. The Cartesian philosophy regarded con- 
sciousness as the necessary property or function of the mind, and 
any fact not known by it was regarded as caused by something else 
than the mind. Hence this system offered good excuse for appeal- 
ing to the spiritistic explanation wherever intelligent activity was 
manifested, which could not be referred to the normal conscious- 
ness of the subject. But the discovery of subconscious mental ac- 
tivities made it necessary to limit the number of cases in which the 
hypothesis of foreign influences was needed to explain the phe- 
nomena. The theory of the subconscious was, therefore, a very 
useful and convenient means for restraining hasty speculation. It 
explained phenomena which the untrained mind had been accus- 
tomed either to make more mysterious than they were or to refer to 
foreign intelligences, w'hen their meaning ^ or content was to be 
found within the experience of the organism in which they appeared. 

But having once found a way to avoid resorting to explanation of 
the facts as due to spirits, many minds began unduly to extend the 
meaning of the subconscious. It was endowed with powers for 
which there was either very inadequate evidence or no evidence 
at all. The term lost much of its definiteness in the extension and 
became a catch-all of explanation for people who refused to believe 
in the existence of spirits. It is not a universal explanation. There 



THE SUBCONSCIOUS 415 

IS one thing about it on which all scientific psychologists are agreed 
— its content is acquired either through the normal channels of 
sense or through stimuli that act in the same way as known stimuli, 
though they may not be immediately known. Only a few writers 
like Mr. Myers ascribe supernormal " faculties " to the subcon- 
scious, and regard it is in rapport with a transcendental world by 
virtue of those faculties. While this theory contains a germ of 
truth, it involves what the psychologist does not admit ; namely, new 
and transcendent " faculties " which are conceived as wholly inde- 
pendent of any stimulus. For the orthodox psychologist, the sub- 
conscious is simply the mind acting without awareness of the stimu- 
lus, and supernormal " faculties '^ or functions are denied or ignored. 
But those who wished to limit or eliminate the appeal to spirits 
ascribe supernormal functions to the subconscious, by which it is en- 
dowed with ability directly to perceive the transcendental. 

As a result of the discussion, we shall probably find that the sub- 
conscious or subliminal includes the same functions of the mind 
as those of normal consciousness, acting in response to a different 
kind of stimulus. For instance, Mr. Myers ascribed telaesthesia 
and telepathy to supernormal functions of the mind. But the psy- 
chologist will probably come to believe that the functions are nor- 
mal, although the stimuli are different. He w^ill then discriminate 
among the facts with reference to their evidential or non-evidential 
value in support of any special explanation. This view can be 
taken, perhaps, without setting aside what Mr. Myers and his col- 
leagues really had in mind. The term " faculties " may be more 
elastic than at first appears; but it is an unfortunate term. In 
order to avoid confusion, the present writer thinks that it might be 
cast aside in favor of the theory that the subconscious is identical 
with normal consciousness in function, though its contents may 
not be identical with those of the normal mind. This theory con- 
ceives it as having definite limits, such as we now apply to normal 
intelligence. We have now only to ascertain what stimuli affect 
the normal consciousness and what stimuli affect the subliminal. 
In this way the whole problem of estimating the supernormal be- 
comes one of rapport, and not of new " faculties/' That is, nor- 
mal rapport with the physical world gives us purely physical knowl- 



41 6 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

edge, while rapport with a transcendental world gives us transcen- 
dental knowledge. The difference between the two is merely that 
between kinds of stimulus and not between endowments of the 
mind, though the two points of view may ultimately be unified 
or reconciled. What I want here to emphasize is the importance 
of the living mind in determining the form of the knowledge which 
is derived from either type of stimulus. 

The value of this conception of the subconscious is, that it recon- 
ciles subconscious activity with spirit agencies while it admits that 
the evidence for the action of spirits is limited. The ordinary 
view of the subliminal is that it is necessarily a substitute for spirits 
as an explanation. The two hypotheses are supposed to be mutually 
exclusive, though, in the opinion of the present writer, both may be 
applicable to the phenomena. The subliminal functions of the 
mind may be absolutely necessary for securing messages from spir- 
its, instead of vitiating the reality of such messages. That, at least, 
is the view taken by the present writer. He fully recognizes that 
many phenomena by the subconscious are not evidence of the influ- 
ence of spirits, but may be traced to subjective sources, or to ordi- 
nary physical stimuli not normally perceived; but he also insists 
that the subconscious may be the instrument for the receipt and 
transmission of foreign, transcendental stimuli. That is to say, 
the hypothesis of the subconscious does not deny the reality of 
spirits, but only limits the kind of facts which may be taken as 
evidence of their action. 

This theory assumes a closer relation with a transcendental world 
than the orthodox view of the subconscious implies, and at the 
same time provides the means for distinguishing between the 
functions of thie subconscious and its contents. In the first place, 
I have explained that its functions are those of the normal mind; 
in my conception of its relation to the transcendental world, I as- 
sume that its functions remain the same, and that its objects of 
knowledge differ only as the stimulus differs from that of normal 
impressions. Our normal isolation from a transcendental world 
is only the inability to be stimulated by it ; and a psychic is simply 
a person who can overcome that isolation and come into rapport 
with a transcendental stimulus. Then, in accordance with well- 



THE SUBCONSCIOUS 



417 



known laws of normal experience, this transcendental stimulus will 
be represented in the reaction of the living mind according to its 
nature and habits. Hence the influence of the subconscious on the 
form of the messages. We do not yet know the nature of that 
foreign stimulus. If it be instigative, it is like any physical stimu- 
lus which merely ^ets mental functions in operation, and the result 
will be determined by the nature or experience of the subject af- 
fected. For instance, a blow on the head will make us see " stars." 
Normally visual reactions take the form of responses to luminous 
stimuli ; but when the stimulus is tactual and the reaction or response 
is visual, there is an abnormal phenomenon or a reaction, as we 
would say, inappropriate to the stimulus. An overloaded stomach 
produces nightmare or hallucinations in sleep. In these cases the 
stimulus is only instigative. But a transmissive stimulus produces 
results less symbolical. The thought of the foreign agent seems to 
be transferred intact and literally. In some cases the form may 
be symbolical, but the transmission may nevertheless be direct. At 
any rate the transmission often seems to be exactly like that of 
the telephone or telegraph, in which the very language of the com- 
municator is reported. In such cases the subconscious seems to 
have no part in the process. 

But the fact is, that the subconscious is still the vehicle of trans- 
mission. Its functions are employed, while its contents, normal 
knowledge and expression, are suppressed or inhibited. It becomes 
a more or less passive instrument for the conveyance of knowledge 
rather than an agent for the interpretation of stimuli or the expres- 
sion of its own reaction aroused by an instigatiye stimulus. In this 
way we keep the subliminal as a necessary means of intercommuni- 
cation between the two worlds, while we provide an explanation 
for the variety in the products of the connection. 

This conception is not simple. The part played by the subliminal 
should be consistent with the actual complexity of the phenomena, 
and the view just taken of it provides that very desideratum. It 
shows the complexities to consist in the variety of connections made 
between the two worlds, and at the same time relates these realms 
in a manner suggested by the law of continuity in evolution, which 
shows that many things are more closely related than is at first 



41 8 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

apparent. The slightest examination of the facts will show that 
the dividing line between normal and supernormal experience is 
often hard to draw; it is in that border-land that we should seek 
to discover the causes which will explain the experiences, though 
we must demand a radically different type of phenomena as defini- 
tive evidence of those agencies. Thus, for instance, the evidence 
to prove the existence of telepathy must be facts clearly exceptional 
in their nature; that is, obviously inexplicable by ordinary causes. 
But the explanation of such facts must be found in processes that 
will at least articulate with known causes. These known causes 
will be such as lie on the border-land of the totally new, and the 
totally new must find some point of contact with the old, before it 
can be satisfactorily explained. Hence while evidence must be 
found in the new, explanation must be found in the already known. 

Now the subconscious lies on the border between the normal and 
the supernormal realms, and may serve to bridge what seems to 
many people to be an impassable chasm ; namely, that between nor- 
mal and supernormal experience. Its functions, so far as a tran- 
scendental world is concerned, are latent, like the body and mind 
of the infant before it is born, developed in a prenatal condition 
for action in a postnatal life. With powers of appreciating stimuli 
that the grosser senses do not perceive, it may, on favorable occa- 
sions, be percipient of stimuli from a spiritual world, whether that 
world be constituted by individual minds or by a general reality 
capable of making impressions, like matter, on delicate sense-organs. 
The subconscious is thus intermediate between a purely physical and 
a purely spiritual existence. 

We must not suppose that the recognition of the subliminal de- 
prives us of the right to consider the spiritistic hypothesis in its 
proper place. The concept of the subconscious legitimately enough 
limits the nature of the evidence for the activity of spirits; but, 
like telepathy, it does not define the character of the explanation 
to be accepted. Indeed, if we regard the subconscious after the 
analogy above mentioned — namely, as latent functions waiting for 
expression after the dissolution of the body, we may find in it a 
clue to what the spiritual life after death may be. The functions 
of the body are foreshadowed by conditions latent before birth ; so 



THE SUBCONSCIOUS 



419 



the subconscious, with its present activities in dreams, deHrium, 
hallucinations, and even normal imagination, may forecast the 
larger exercise of the same functions after death in the creation of 
apparent reality. 

But it is not necessary to introduce speculation into a purely 
scientific discussion of the place of the subliminal. All that we 
require for the present is a clear recognition that the subconscious 
is not a rival explanation of facts, except in a limited field, and that 
it may be the connecting link between the transcendental and the 
physical worlds. The recognition of this connection will remove 
half the objections commonly raised against belief in a spiritual 
existence. We can believe that the subconscious is such a medium 
without fully understanding its nature, while the attempt to make 
of it an explanation excluding the influence of spirits makes it nec- 
essary to enlarge the conception of its powers to such stupendous 
proportions that it becomes more diflicult to believe in it than in the 
spirits themselves. The conception of subliminal activity cannot 
supplant the spiritistic hypothesis, in cases which furnish undoubted 
proof of the supernormal. 



CHAPTER XXVII 
SPIRITUALISM, RELIGION AND SCIENCE 

MANY people of the last generation had the extraordinary 
notion that spiritualism began with the performances of 
the Fox sisters at Hydeville, N. Y. But we should bear 
in mind, as earlier discussion showed, that every aspect of it can be 
traced to the belief of savages and is found in the folk-lore of most 
nations. The extraordinary impetus which spiritualism received 
at the hands of the Fox sisters, and perhaps of Judge Edmunds and 
Andrew Jackson Davis, between 1848 and i860, has only given it 
a prominence w^hich otherwise it might not have had. Probably 
the new interest in the subject was due less to the Fox sisters than 
to the outbreak among the common people of skepticism regarding 
the Christian doctrine of immortality. Most intelligent people had 
come to feel that Christian beliefs required proof, and they were 
ready for any evidence of survival after death, whose attractive- 
ness to mankind had probably been a stronger influence in creating 
belief than had the testimony of traditional Christianity. 

The form of the Fox phenomena was calculated to appeal to un- 
trained minds, under the influence of the Christian apologists. 
For generations, upholders of Christianity had defended miracles; 
one could hardly pick up a volume of '' Evidences of Christianity " 
without being impressed by the stress laid upon the physical phe- 
nomena of the New Testament as the most' conclusive evidence in 
favor of Christian teaching. The force of the argument rested on 
the assurance that the stories of such miracles were true. The 
average Christian believer was not skeptical nor critical ; but when 
science began to discredit the narratives of the New Testament, 
public opinion, in so far as it was affected by science, also began to 
question such miracles. Laymen generally were not disposed to 
4eny miracles which they personally saw, having been inoculated 
for ages with the conviction that they were possible; they only 

420 



SPIRITUALISM, RELIGION AND SCIENCE 421 

applied the teaching of orthodox Christianity when they attached 
great value to the raps and knockings of the Fox sisters. These 
were not evidence for the conclusions drawn, but neither are the 
physical miracles of the New Testament evidence of the divine. 
The occurrences might, if true, transcend the accepted limitations 
of natural action, but they are not indicative of any great intelli- 
gence. This circumstance, apparent in the Fox phenomena, to- 
gether with the rising influence of scientific discrimination, evoked 
skepticism of spiritualism; various other objections were due some- 
times to prejudice, scientific or religious, more often to the offense 
to esthetic and refinement given by the people and phenomena con- 
cerned. 

The effect of the public performances accompanied by an organ- 
ized effort to substitute demonstrations for the worship and serv- 
ices of the orthodox churches, was to perpetuate the method known 
as spiritualism. As the term had been dropped from philosophic 
usage since the time of Immanuel Kant, it assumed the implications 
and associations which the vulgarity of the performances often 
justified. An illiterate person talking twaddle for gospel, without 
any of the intellectual and esthetic equipment of the educated man, 
only presented an unfavorable contrast to the accepted methods of 
teaching and preaching. The sect did too little to expose fraud, 
and indeed often tolerated it, when the utmost intolerance should 
have been practiced. It upheld performances without discrimina- 
tion between frauds and honest people ; and it showed none of the 
ethical or religious interest of those who make immortality the key 
to a spiritual life. Spiritualism endeavored to protect its work by 
claiming to be a religion when it got into trouble with the police, 
although it failed to exhibit the religious qualities of reverence and 
spiritual seriousness. 

It is true that Christianity had a humble origin in the same kind 
of phenomena, and the record shows that it had its contest with 
frauds and sorcerers. It was not a religion of intellectual snobs 
and esthetes. Christians have no reason to look down on humble 
origins. But in the course of time they imbibed the tastes and 
habits of the intellectual and esthetic classes and could not recognize 
their own cousins among the spiritualists. There is no sin in good 



422 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

taste and the cultivation of refinement, but to frown upon alleged 
evidence for survival because its appearance is not esthetically 
inviting is a mistake, if not a sin. Respectability has much in its 
favor, but neither esthetics nor respectability can be a substitute 
for ethics or truth. 

The spiritualists were right in their general conception of what 
would prove existence after death. They did not use a scientific 
method, but they realized that dogma and authority could not re- 
tain their influence in an age of freedom of thought, and that we 
require facts, not philosophical or theological theories, to support 
doctrines. They at least dimly saw the problem as scientific. But 
they did not organize their investigations. They were bent on 
satisfying curiosity and on calling their performances religion. 
Consequently they brought their facts and their methods into con- 
tempt among people of intelligence and good taste. 

On the other hand, the orthodox religious bodies, whatever faults 
they had, did have respect for decency and culture and were in- 
clined to insist upon suitable methods of investigation. They de- 
manded the practical application of belief to the spiritual habits 
of the individual, w^hile many spiritualists lent a receptive ear to 
the teaching and practice of men like Moses Hull, who should have 
been cast out of their society. They assumed an attitude of hos- 
tility towards Christianity, although claiming that it had originated 
in spiritualism. If they had realized the strength of the religious 
mind, whatever its foibles, they might have made their peace with 
it and conquered it. But they persisted in warfare, manifesting 
none of its virtues while asking for a hearing from it. 

Enthusiasm, on the one hand, and the need of protection against 
the police, on the other, impelled spiritualists to claim that their 
performances constituted a religion. They thus invited compari- 
son with the other religious bodies of the world, especially Christi- 
anity, as the central doctrine of both is immortality. But the peo- 
ple first attracted to spiritualism were free-thinkers, usually of the 
type that is either opposed to Christianity and religion altogether 
or wants its comforts and consolations without its dogmas. In the 
concentration of interest on the experimental evidence for existence 
after death, the ethical and spiritual achievements of religion in 



SPIRITUALISM, RELIGION AND SCIENCE 423 

the life of the individual were disregarded. Interest was centered 
on communication with another world, and the larger ethical mean- 
ing of the cosmos and the personal duties of the individual were 
ignored. The whole emphasis of Christianity was so evidently re- 
versed that the system made an excellent target for Christian at- 
tack. The opportunity was not lost. Neither side could see that 
both were right. Religion had lost the realization that evidence 
was necessary for its dogmas, and spiritualism had no interest in 
the ethical and spiritual aims of religion. Christianity had forgot- 
ten that its system primarily emphasized conduct and our mental 
attitude towards our neighbors. It stressed philosophical beliefs 
and dogmas, not, it is true, without some attention to humani- 
tarianism, but with the tacit acknowledgment that this was inci- 
dental. The spiritualists forgot that Christ had deplored the inter- 
est of the people in his miracles or psychic phenomena, and had 
urged the promulgation of the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount 
as the object of his coming. They insisted on miracles and me- 
diumistic performances to the neglect of the spiritual life. No 
wonder they came into conflict with the rising tendency of religion 
to reform its attitude on dogmas and to restore the emphasis to life 
and conduct. 

The one hope of the church lies in the revision of its creeds and 
the concentration of its interest on practical life. This was its 
original mission, which was later supplemented by its emphasis on 
the belief in immortality. It has met with such hostility from 
science and reason, and has lost so many battles for its dogmas, 
that it is beginning to realize that it can save itself only by reverting 
to its primitive impulse. It must make its peace with science. 
Many of the institutions which arose from Christian impulses have 
assumed secular form and have even forgotten their origin. Chari- 
ties, hospitals, protection of children, chivalry, and the rights of 
women have all been derived from Christian ideas. The spiritual- 
ists did not realize this. They were intent on '' miracles," most of 
them exhibitions of vulgarity which the developed refinement of 
most people could not endure. Their performances might be very 
suggestive to those interested in facts, but not to those who consid- 
ered good taste important. The ethical and spiritual impulses of 



424 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

religion were discarded in behalf of " demonstrations " of com- 
munication with the dead, many of them either pure conjuring and 
fraud, or incapable of being distinguished from these. No confi- 
dence could be established in their alleged facts. The practical ap- 
plication of belief in a future life had no interest for them; and 
there is no reason for concerning ourselves with immortality unless 
it has an influence on ethical life. Spiritualism shows no interest 
in either science or religion. Unless it reforms its methods it is 
doomed to extinction. Its first duty is to take part in the world's 
ethical redemption. If it will organize charities and hospital work, 
young men's and young women's social and ethical institutions, and 
in general reproduce the practical services of the church, it can ex- 
pect to survive. If it had done these things from the start, instead 
of conducting demonstrations which should have been left to scien- 
tists, it might have conquered the church and the world fifty years 
ago. 

Science, however, is beginning to take up the subject. It will 
conduct the proof or demonstrations with decency and order and 
will enter into sympathy with the primary and most important im- 
pulses of religion. The best indication of the doom which awaits 
spiritualism is seen in the final results to some of its best credited 
representatives. The confession of one of the Fox sisters made 
it impossible to have confidence in their performances, even though 
some or many of the phenomena may have been genuine. The last 
days of Slade show what comes to those who cannot preserve moral 
character while proving the supernormal. He is said to have made 
and spent two fortunes, and then to have ended his days in pov- 
erty, giving sittings at ten cents each. His methods and conduct 
were such that not only was his private life impeached, but no one 
can defend any of his claims or those of his supporters. He is 
almost totally forgotten. Even Zoellner's experiments with him 
have been discredited ; and whatever of the genuine may have been 
included in some of his performances is nullified by proved fraud. 
The same is true of hundreds of similar but less conspicuous me- 
diums and deceivers. Spiritualism, with such a history, can never 
attract intelligent people ; the growing demand that scientific method 
with its discriminating procedure shall take up the subject will 



SPIRITUALISM, RELIGION AND SCIENCE 425 

leave the spiritualists without either rehgious or scientific support. 

Men usually form their conception of a religion, a sect, or a so- 
ciety by its most manifest characteristics. If it is ethical and prac- 
tical, they respect it. If it is a mere show, they regard it with 
amusement, as most people regard spiritualism. All that most peo- 
ple can see in it is a vaudeville performance, and one not well 
conducted at that. Illiterate mediums talk platitudes or twaddle to 
the audience, deliver messages which either are not understood or 
are without evidential value and are so trivial and vulgar as to carry 
no inspiration to intelligent minds. They should not then expect 
the intellectual world to admire and wonder. 

It is possible to charge the other side, however, with the opposite 
faults. Many of the religious type are too much influenced by 
esthetics, and many skeptics are too dogmatic in their denials to de- 
serve any tolerance from really scientific minds. Having followed 
science in the judgment that spiritualism is either fraud or delusion, 
religious minds are content with forms and consolatory faith and 
pass by on the other side, though facts have stared them in the 
face ever since the time of the apostles. On the other hand, sci- 
ence, content, without thorough inquiry, to confine its investiga- 
tions to the physical world in which it has achieved so much, will 
not open its eyes to anomalies in the realm of mind and nature, and 
so degenerates into a dogmatism exactly like that of theology. 
Spiritualism is thus ground to pieces between the upper and nether 
millstones of these two points of view. It can redeem itself only 
by making its peace with both, by submitting its claims to the judg- 
ment of science and returning to the ethical work of the church. 

Science, in its contrast to theology, resorts to present experience, 
or facts immediately verifiable, instead of to faith in authority and 
tradition. It may insist that this was also the original attitude of 
religion, and that Christianity was a scientific movement w^hich ap- 
pealed to facts instead of authority for its belief in survival. This 
is indeed true; and for this reason science may well demand the 
use of its method to verify or to refute the claims of the past. In 
its relation to spiritualism, science insists not only on strict determi- 
nation of conditions, but also on cumulative and collective, not 
merely individual, results. The scientific man knows full well that 



426 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

the honesty of the subject is not a sufficient guarantee of results, 
though it is important. Any one is Hkely to make false observations 
and mistakes of judgment, which can be eliminated only by the col- 
lection of a sufficiently large number of genuine and thoroughly ac- 
credited facts to eliminate unconscious error. This condition the 
spiritualists have v^holly neglected. They have no scientific rec- 
ords, and their " demonstrations " depend on faith for even so much 
interest as would suggest investigation. They prove nothing scien- 
tifically. Their work is often striking enough to arouse attention 
and challenge investigation, and has perhaps served to keep interest 
in the subject alive. But science must work by laboratory meth- 
ods, which can control the conditions and produce trustworthy 
results. It must multiply the facts indefinitely and be able to offer 
some rational explanation of their complications in order to obtain 
any consensus of opinion in favor of the supernormal. If spir- 
itualists would only recognize this necessity and then devote them- 
selves to the natural correlate of immortality, namely, the ethical 
regeneration of a world saturated with materialism, they not only 
would bring their cause into better repute, but also would refute 
most of the objections directed against them. 

Psychic researchers have had to coin the term " spiritism " in 
order to avoid the bad associations of the term " spiritualism." 
Both words refer to the same type of facts; -but spiritism implies 
that these facts have been examined more carefully than spiritual- 
ism demands. If there is any difference at all between spiritism 
and spiritualism it lies only in this : that spiritism is supported by 
facts much better accredited than most of the data of the spiritual- 
ists. 

I make this statement because I am well aware of both the advan- 
tages and disadvantages of names. Most people think only in 
words, in the meaning which ordinary experience gives them. If 
they are spectators of a public spiritualistic performance and find 
it an offense against good taste and intelligence, they form their 
entire conception of the term " spiritualism " from the appearance 
of that performance. Hence it is often necessary to coin new 
words, since it is hard to divest the traditional terms of their asso- 
ciations. To avoid misunderstanding from those who are inclined 



SPIRITUALISM, RELIGION AND SCIENCE 427 

to ridicule instead of to argue, it may be necessary to indicate a 
distinction by a new word and then to force men to recognize the 
real identity of the new and the old terms. But the facts are the 
same, whatever the words used to express them. The intelligent 
man will concentrate his attention on judging these facts, and will 
not allow critics to discredit them by the mere use of names. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 
PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION AND MEDICINE 

VERY few would deny the eclipse of religion in this age, 
especially when measured by the conception of it which the 
past has afforded. They might save a discouraging view 
by changing their conception of it, as most people have done and 
perhaps always will do with any force so perennial as that which 
has embodied itself under that term. It would seem far more 
doubtful to affirm the eclipse of medicine in the age when it seems 
to be in the very midst of its triumphs and to promise still more 
wonderful achievements. Medicine would be claimed by the phy- 
sician as the very last department of human endeavor to be over- 
shadowed. The university man devoted to psychology also would 
not accept the intimation that his subject is under a shadow. But 
his contention would not be so clear as the physician's. He cannot 
point to any such achievements as the physiologist can summon in 
his defence. Besides, one indisputable fact shows its subordinate 
place among the successful sciences. Once it was much like phi- 
losophy, the queen of the sciences. Indeed it was itself the very 
basis of philosophy. But with the partition of that great dominion 
it was reduced in rank and the physical usurped the place of the 
mental in the reflective world. " Philosophy," says Lotze, " is a 
mother wounded by the ingratitude of her children. Once she was 
all in all. Mathematics and Astronomy, Physics and Physiology, 
no less than Ethics and Politics, sprang from her loins. But the 
offspring soon set up establishments of their own, each the earlier as 
it made vigorous progress under the influence of parental authority. 
Then conscious of what they had created by their own endeavors 
they turned against the comprehensive scope of philosophy, which 
could not follow them into the details of this new lift, and became 
weary of the everlasting repetitions without progress which had 
characterized the parental career. At last, when each suckling had 

428 



PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION AND MEDICINE 429 

attained its independence, it left philosophy in undisputed posses- 
sion of the insoluble problems of the universe. With this ancient 
portion she still sits reflecting on the old riddles with the hope of 
holding fast to the central interest of human knowledge." 

Psychology has had to share in the decline, partly because she 
sought independence and partly because she had no general mis- 
sion for the world, and to-day she depends mainly on the tradi- 
tional place she has had in the curriculum of human knowledge. 
Psychology has divested itself of all interest in the existence of a 
soul and, to save an open defence of materialism, employs the term 
" mind " to denote mental states whose basis it will not discuss. 
It is a technical study for neophytes and idlers, unless, perchance, it 
can detect crime or claim importance in pedagogy, for which it has 
done little or nothing up to date. It has no message for common 
life, as had the doctrines of Plato and Christianity. It is a kind 
of learned amusement, or a Brodzvissenschaft for those who can- 
not otherwise earn bread. It lives on the momentum of its tradi- 
tional importance, and would have been cast out of education long 
ago but for fear of the consequences of materialism, which all hold 
but will not avow. It is not a propaedeutic to other knowledge but 
the refuge of those who either get their wisdom by looking into their 
navels or escape a dirt-philosophy only by refusing to soil their 
hands. 

Medicine, however, will claim exemption from this verdict. As 
already remarked, its practical achievements are second only to 
those of physics and chemistry. It will vehemently deny any accu- 
sation of retrogression. It will passionately resent the charge that 
the shadows are falling on its course. But in spite of all this I 
shall insist that it is under an eclipse. We do not see it because we 
have become accustomed to the darkness. The achievements it has 
effected, no one will dispute ; but their importance is to be meas- 
ured solely according to our standards of value. If our philosophy, 
whether intuitive or reasoned, conscious or unconscious, be ma- 
terialistic we shall see no eclipse. We shall rejoice in the darkness 
and not be aware of the light. We shall be living like the blind fish 
in Mammoth Cave. We deny the existence of light because we 
refuse to look at it. It is man s satisfaction with existence as he 



S. 



430 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

finds it that prevents his looking for anything further, especially if 
he feels the weight of evidence to be against the existence of more 
than presents itself to superficial vision. When we insist on re- 
maining at the surface we do not see below it. This is what 
materialism does. It confines man to the external plane of exist- 
ence. And we are materialists when we take physical science as 
our measure of reality. 

Men, individually and collectively, are governed by their con- 
ceptions of the cosmos. They may not always be clearly aware of 
these conceptions, or at least of their origin in tradition or environ- 
ment. But however they have acquired it, all have some concep- 
tion of a relation to things in general, arid this conception deter- 
mines their conduct. If man adopts the doctrine that matter is 
the prius and limit of reality he makes himself the subject of what 
he must forever estimate as inferior to himself. Matter he re- 
gards as inert and unintelligent, though he admits that in the for- 
tuitous combinations of its elements intelligence escapes as an 
accident. But he regards matter as the womb and the grave of all 
that he prizes. He will not worship what he has to conquer in 
order to live. A universe that offers no permanent development 
for intelligence and morality in the individual must encourage pes- 
simism and despair. We may conceal all this from ourselves in 
the pleasures of outwitting the power that will extinguish us if we 
do not conquer it. Material satisfactions — the freedom that 
wealth may bring from the hardship of toil and suffering — may 
hide from us for a while the ugly Medusa-head of nature, but 
when we come to pay our bonds we are confronted with the terrific 
oracle of QEdipus : " May'st thou ne'er know the truth of what 
thou art." Only a spiritual conception of reality will rescue ideal- 
ism from the clutches of a dark fate. The stability of nature and 
the preservation of peaceful societies hide the gulfs over which we 
live. But when nature reverts to chaos, in tornado or earthquake, 
we discover the frailty of all human power. " The earth, green 
as she looks, rests everywhere on dread foundations were we fur- 
ther down,, and Pan to whose music the nymphs dance has a cry 
in him that can drive all men distracted." Famine and disease will 
make the stoutest hearts quail unless education and courage have 



PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION AND MEDICINE 431 

trained them to accept the issue in defiance. No rehgious faith 
teaches the worship of impersonal forces. Reverence is reserved 
for something else than matter. Unless the divine can be found 
somewhere in the mysterious labyrinths of nature, man accepts 
battle with nature's forces with the assurance only of death and 
with no hope of salvation. He grits his teeth and plunges into the 
war without expectation of either giving or receiving quarter. 
While obedience to the laws of nature may bring him much, it is 
the obedience of prudence, not of reverence. It requires another 
philosophy to subdue the hostility of the mind to forces that have 
the power to crush, but neither the intelligence nor the mercy to 
save. Materialism can only exalt the remorseless sway of force, 
the pitiless Juggernaut of Time crushing its own worshipers. Wise 
men, of course, will not whine over tasks that cannot be done or 
hopes that cannot be realized, but they would be happier if the 
cosmos offered something for idealism to cherish. Materialism is 
a good antidote for superstition and ignorance, and it is the philoso- 
phy which forces attention to the fixed uniformity of nature; but 
personality can find no ideals in impersonality, and it is here that this 
philosophy fails to satisfy the desires of man. Hence he is impelled 
to penetrate the veil into the inner sanctuary of nature in the hope 
of finding a satisfaction that materialism cannot give. 

Among savages, religion and medicine were the same thing. 
When Greece shook off the incubus of polytheism, medicine was 
frankly materialistic, having discarded religion. It was left to 
Plato to revive interest in the mind and in such religion as philoso- 
phy could support at that time. In Christianity all three joined 
hands. Psychology offered a philosophic defence for the existence 
and immortality of the soul, and medicine took care of the body in 
the interest of the soul. After the revival of science, each went 
its own way, medicine into materialism and psychology into idealism 
or spiritualism. But materialism triumphed and even subjugated 
psychology to its own services, and left religion without sympathy 
or protection. The great ethical ideals that made the mind more 
important than the body have now retired into the limbo of illusion, 
and a full stomach is considered a greater desideratum than any 
amount of penance or piety. Materialism, whether avowed or 



432 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

denied, has absorbed ever^ form of activity and has extended its 
influence over every institution. Religion lives only upon tradi- 
tions. The great beHef in a soul and in its survival of bodily death 
has crumbled into ashes, except for that faithful class which either 
stops thinking or turns to science for its hopes. Medicine has 
taken charge of all that is worth living for, and those who have 
money and leisure may worship in soft pews and listen to the 
ritual, or to desperate efforts to adjust worn-out creeds to a philoso- 
phy which is incompatible with them. 

But the last twenty-five years have developed a movement which 
is now like only a small cloud on the horizon but which bids fair 
soon to change the whole scientific and philosophic tendency of the 
age. Just at the moment when religion seemed to be dying the new 
movement came into sight, and yet religion turned away its face. 
It, too, has become saturated with materialism and goes stumbling 
about, blindly groping for light and protection, while its erstwhile 
enemy, medicine, wears the crown of victory. The primary ob- 
ject of religion was to save the soul ; that of medicine to save the 
body. As long as psychology could maintain that there was a soul 
and that its preservation was more important than that of the body, 
religion reigned supreme and medicine occupied a secondary place. 
The coffers of mankind w^ere poured into the church. Money and 
salvation went together. But materialism has turned the tables. 
Medicine is now more lucrative than priestcraft. We do not be- 
lieve we have any souls, but we are sure of our bodies, pace the 
good Bishop Berkeley and the Christian Scientists. Medical science 
is organized to save the body and does not care what becomes of 
the soul, if there be any. Its business is not with another world. 
It has a business syndicate's grip on the passion to live. It has 
availed itself of this advantage and but for competition and a code 
of ethics not yet extinct would have no better reputation than 
Shylock. Christianity has always taught that salvation is free; 
it supported the priest by wages paid collectively, and thus socialized 
religion. Salvation was not individually paid for until the sale of 
indulgences, and this terminated the abuses associated with the 
more mercenary tendencies of religion. 

In all this period, however, medicine was not socialized. The 



PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION AND MEDICINE 433 

individual paid for his services. Saving the body was not free, 
it had to be paid for. As soon as materialism triumphed it de- 
creased the interest in another life and intensified the passion for 
this one. This situation has yielded a harvest for medicine, and 
medicine has availed itself of its opportunities. In fact, medicine 
is not wholly exempt from the charge of extortion. The salvation 
of the body is the primary thing. Indeed there is nothing else to 
save. Psychology offers us no soul in which to be interested, and 
physiology has undertaken to correct or prevent the ravages of 
disease and the brutalities of accident. In the meantime discovery 
and invention have multiplied the comforts of life and justified ma- 
terialism of her children. Our wealth goes into saving the body; 
and such attention as the soul gets, where it is assumed at all, is 
perfunctory and ritualistic. In the Middle Ages men built cathe- 
drals and worshipped God, living like Simeon Stylites; in the 
present age we build hospitals and worship our bellies, living like 
princes. Materialism has commercialized everything, and medicine, 
despite its charities, has not escaped the general tendency. The 
university was founded to defend rehgion and has developed into 
a forum for science. Only the denominational college remains to 
protect religion. The non-sectarian institution has to cultivate 
Laodiceanism in order to attract students and Mr. Carnegie's pen- 
sions in order to save paying its teachers duly for their services. 
Psychology, which might have saved the soul for ethics and re- 
hgion, has gone off into *' empiricism " or materialism; and medi- 
cine, no longer having to cope with mental phenomena, has a free 
field for materialistic therapeutics. Mind no longer counts either 
as a cause or a prize. The body is everything, and the resources of 
civilization are employed in protecting private property from the 
hungry maws of the masses, who were once taught by Christianity 
that they were our brothers and were deserving of the right to live 
When medicine cannot exploit the poor, it refers them to the alms- 
house and buries them in Potter's Field. The physician may not 
save the epicure's body, but he may get his money. No religion 
comes in to make it imperative to consider man's soul. Only his 
body deserves or receives attention, and that only when he can pay 
for it or when we wish to evade the appearance of inhumanity. 



434 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

Charity is the remnant of the religion which materialism has dis- 
placed, and, in the light of evolution, with its struggle for existence 
and the survival of the fittest or strongest, even charitj threatens to 
become an extinct virtue. 

Religion managed to get into a hostile attitude towards science. 
At the inception of Christianity they were allied except for the 
contest with the Epicureans and their materialism. Even there 
the argument was ad hominem. The Epicurean admitted the ex- 
istence of a soul but denied its immortality; and when confronted 
with alleged evidence of survival, instead of acknowledging defeat, 
he changed his ground and continued in his denial. He gave up 
the existence of the soul rather than admit its mortality and accept 
a reconciliation with religion. Otherwise religion quickly seized 
upon philosophy and science for its support and directed its hos- 
tility to art. Idolatry, as the embodiment of art and of a purely 
esthetic conception of the divine, was the bete noir of Christianity. 
The early Christian could not distinguish between the symbolism 
and the reality of polytheism, and, taking offense, rightly I think, 
at the sensuous conception of the divine as nothing but sublimated 
matter, established a conflict with art and an alliance with science. 
Science, at least when it based its explanations on atoms and similar 
realities, rested as much on the supersensible as religion had done, 
and hence had in that respect a natural affinity with religion. So 
long as religion could enlist philosophy and scieri^ce in its defense it 
was assured of protection. But as soon as it began a dalliance with 
art its decay began, with the rise of materialism in the church. 
When pictures and cathedrals became necessary for religion, the 
protection of philosophy was no longer necessary, or it required 
too strenuous use of the intellect to justify the labor. So physical 
science began a career independnt of religion and soon attacked its 
fundamental claims. Physical science won in all its battles until 
religion now crouches in terror before the loss of all its traditions. 
Psychology and philosophy are no longer its handmaids, but have 
gone off into the service of the intellectual curiosity shop. Medi- 
cine has appropriated all that had belonged to its rival or master 
and has assumed a determined hostility to everything spiritual. 

Psychic research, with its facts to suggest or to prove the exist- 



PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION AND MEDICINE 435 

ence of a soul and its survival, had neither a scientific nor a thera- 
peutic interest for medicine. Professing to be devoted to a scien- 
tific view of man, the moment that any promise of sustaining the 
value of personality appeared on the horizon, medicine and academic 
psychology began either to take to cover or to ridicule what had been 
the real object of psychological science in the beginning. Medicine 
had founded its claims on materialism, and psychology dared not 
oppose medicine for fear of losing its bread. Both ridiculed what 
they had not the courage to face nor the knowledge to understand. 
But medicine did yield to the influence of Christian Science! 
It pretended to investigate it, but there was nothing scientific in 
the verdict, though it was correct enough in all probability. It 
laughed at mesmerism until mesmerism was revived under the term 
hypnotism and then, accepted the facts and their utility; but the 
moment that hypnotism approached the confines of the supernormal 
it was to be neglected. Christian Science followed. The system 
was one hal^ spiritualism and one half a scheme to make money. 
Neuropathic patients whom the regular physicians could not cure 
went in multitudes to the new " Science " and were cured. The 
demonstration that drugs were not always necessary for successful 
cures was a challenge to the whole system of medicine, which 
rested on chemistry alone. Mind was not a factor in the pharma- 
copoeia. Psychology made no such claim as Christian Science did, 
and if it had done so, materialistic medicine would have laughed 
the claim out of court. It was content simply to attack the cures of 
Christian Science on the evidential side. It was an easy victory to 
show that Christian Science was not scientific. But the fact re- 
mained that sufferers sought and found relief or health in a system 
which did its work in defiance of physiological orthodoxy. This 
fact would not down, and it was not the exclusive property of 
Christian Science. Mental healing had been successful long be- 
fore Mrs. Eddy gave it notoriety. Hypnotic suggestion had been 
scientifically appUed by Charcot, Bernheim, Janet, Baron von 
Schrenck-Notzing and a host of predecessors. But its methods 
were too esoteric for the average practitioner to use or to learn and 
the confidence in drugs rose in proportion to the assurance that ma- 
terialism was the true philosophy. 



436 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

What medicine should have done was to seize the first in- 
dication of any unusual mental phenomena and investigate them 
scientifically, and then, by a just verdict, make an end of the mat- 
ter. But what did it do with mesmerism? It appointed a com- 
mittee which reported much charlatanry and some important facts 
in the claims of Mesmer and his followers; and then refused to 
accept this verdict, packed a committee to condemn it, and pub- 
lished the later report, shelving the first. Orthodoxy and dogma- 
tism, bigotry and intolerance are not confined to religion and their 
results are not felt there alone. Science can destroy its own au- 
thority as easily as did religion. Why science should have 
neglected the investigation of hypnotism and taken alarm at 
Christian Science is explainable only by the ease with which it could 
divest the latter of its claims ; but even there " McClure's Magazine " 
did more and better work than the medical profession. 

There is no escaping the fact that mind as well as matter is a 
causal factor in the world. But materialism, though it might have 
conceded this fact, has stubbornly refused to recognize it. Though 
the physician knew that the mental condition of his patient was a 
factor in therapeutics, he refused to give it the place in practice 
that it merited. He was too much absorbed in brain centers, about 
which there has been written as much unprovable metaphysics as 
about the unseen. Matter was the prius of everything and that 
was the end of investigation. However, the slow and steady ac- 
cumulation of facts by psychic research, if it has not been able 
scientifically to establish the causal influence of mind on matter, 
has opened the densest materialistic mind to something besides 
brain centers. To introduce a soul into the investigations of 
biology and physiology is to revolutionize them. Psychology might 
have shared the honors of this result, but it chose to run away, pre- 
ferring either materialism or intellectual snobbery. But psychology 
and medicine have only postponed the day of judgment which is 
coming to rob the old authorities of their prestige and power. 
The stone which was despised of the builders is to become the 
head of the corner. Mind will take a place among the causal 
agencies of nature. This position will be won either by the study 
of suggestion and mental healing or by the evidence for survival 



PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION AND MEDICINE 437 

after death. Medicine will have to give up the exclusive use of 
drugs and admit the influence of mental states on the condition 
of the body. The more gracefully it does this the better for its 
own influence. Its hostility to Christian Science was at least 
excusable, and the writer thinks justified, by the equally one-sided 
views which that system takes. Mind is one of the causal agents 
in the world, but it is not the only one. Hovv^ever, the writer freely 
concedes that without the evidence of psychic research, the material- 
ist has the best of the case. The facts and the argument are on his 
side, if the supernormal is to be debarred from consideration. 

The cowardice about this question is astonishing when we 
consider how alert the scientific mind is in other provinces. The 
most useless inquiries in physics or chemistry, will engage hun- 
dreds of men and unlimited resources, if only fame or curiosity 
can be satisfied. North Pole expeditions are organized at enor- 
mous expense with nothing of importance as a result, and the public 
goes wild about them. But when one offers to prove that man has 
a soul or that the mind may be a factor in therapeutics, he meets 
only ridicule. The momentum of materialistic science is so great 
that the most important of all problems has to wait for half a 
century to win attention. 

The present writer thinks that the main contention in this 
field has been sustained and that it is only stupidity and prejudice 
that stand in the way of its wider acceptance. He will no longer 
make any concession to a skepticism that refuses to investigate. 

The one great change which the proof of the causal influence 
of mind will bring to medicine will be the placing of ethics in a 
more important position in therapeutics. Materialism with its 
drug methods was based upon the assumption that medicine could 
cure the effects of vice and sin. Physicians knew better, but the 
patient wanted to believe this and it was not always convenient 
or profitable to disillusion him on this point. The achievements 
in the use of materia medica in lieu of spiritus medicus tended to 
sustain confidence in the possibility of escaping the consequences 
of sin, and man went to his physician instead of the priest for 
relief. The time was when he w^ent to the priest first and after- 
ward to the doctor. But this procedure has been reversed. Ma- 



438 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

terialism taught us to believe that, if we only had good enough 
doctors, we could sin as we pleased. We consulted the physician 
and took his drugs instead of buying indulgences. The fact is 
that the one is no better than the other for buying release from 
moral responsibility. If chemistry can relieve us from the conse- 
quences of sin, why give ethics any place at all? So thought ma- 
terialism in its attempt to evade the facts of morality. But to 
put mind among the therapeutic agents is to turn the tide the other 
way. It will not set aside the achievements of the materia medica, 
but it will add a new force to healing. The physician will have 
to become a psychologist and a moralist. He has already found, in 
spite of his materialism, that drugs will not do everything, and 
he squints cautiously towards mind-cure without realizing the 
extent of the changes that must come from any dalliance with it. 
But to it he must come, if he is to be scientific at all, instead of 
resting in traditions and dogmatism no less fatal to progress than 
mediaeval theology. But physician and patient alike must learn that 
ethics are the best and the cheapest therapeutic, and that mind is 
the primary factor in healing. We cannot substitute drugs for 
conscience, except to secure more fees and fewer cures. What 
is needed is the organization of the medical profession on the same 
basis as the priesthood. Disinterestedness and humanity must be 
the primary motives of its work, or at least the mercenary interest 
must be minimized. As it is to-day, the clergyman receives on 
the average scarcely a living wage, and this is right enough if there 
be no soul to save. The rewards should all go to the physician if 
the body is all in all. But when we are assured that there is a 
soul and that it survives in another and invisible environment, the 
physician must either adjust his practice to the demands of ethics 
or retire from the field. 

The physician may endeavor to heal without raising the question 
of ultimate causes, but he cannot effect a permanent cure until his 
patient is spiritually sound. The individual is not always the 
sinner and hence the physician cannot always throw the blame on 
the victim. He must cure, if he can, regardless of the relation be- 
tween individual and social sin. No doubt each man must accept 
responsibility for his error, but too often the sin is that of society 



PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION AND MEDICINE 439 

and the individual has to bear the suffering vicariously. The hap- 
piness of the successful is often more or less at the expense of the 
unsuccessful. Hospitals and asylums are embodiments of this idea, 
and the only question is, how far the principle shall be applied. The 
passion to live is so strong that if man is without any belief that 
better times are reserved for him beyond the grave, he will give all 
he has, to prolong consciousness. The physician's advantage in 
the situation is tremendous. If he does not possess character he 
may make the suffering of the patient a thumbscrew for extorting 
good fees. 

Half the applause heaped on medicine is from those who rejoice 
at the ability to escape the results of sin and to outwit nature or 
Providence. Since medicine is so near religion, it must be social- 
ized and brought to recognize that the morality of patients is more 
important than life. That condition can be secured only by chang- 
ing the relative position assigned the body in the scheme of values 
that we cherish. Materialism, on its own premises, of course, is 
justified in its estimate, but only because it does not recognize the 
existence and the superior importance of the soul. The conse- 
quences, however, of the estimate, like all those of materialism, are 
proving disastrous. If the materialist wants to debauch either in 
philosophy or life he can get it; for nature will not interfere with 
our choice. It will silently weave about it a set of consequences 
which ultimately correct the error, and we can escape only by re- 
tracing our steps. 

Therapeutics, no less than ethics, require a soul and the physician 
will never effect the best results until he accepts that point of view. 
He cannot do it, of course, with the methods of normal psychology. 
It is the residual phenomena of nature that establish the widest con- 
clusions. They have to be unified with the whole, and in doing this 
we discover new agents. Forced by the facts to recognize mental 
states as causal agents in therapeutic processes, however limited the 
field of their activity, medicine admits an entering wedge into its 
scheme of things and sooner or later it must submit to the restora- 
tion of the ethical and religious point of view, divested of the mass 
of illusions and errors that have gathered about it like barnacles. 
Curing diseases without curing sin only multiplies the cases with 



/ 



440 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

which we have to deal, and present-day medicine is no help in 
the ethical regeneration of man. We seek at enormous expense 
the means for escaping pain, but we will not give a cent to ascer- 
tain whether we have a soul and what its duties are. Liberty and 
irresponsibility are what we desire, and not an ideal that looks be- 
yond an Epicurean paradise. 

And yet there is always progress. We take present satisfaction 
as an index of the right condition of things. It is this that makes 
all conservatism. But nature never rests. She will have change at 
all costs. If we resist it we pay the heavier penalty. We may 
cry as much as we please over the crumbling of the past into 
ashes, with all those institutions which we have learned to prize, 
but we would not do so could we see in the change a sure harbinger 
of a greater paradise. It is the darkness of the future that makes us 
lament the loss of the past. Give us a beacon light into the future 
and we can endure much. Ethical ideals beyond sense can find 
their justification only in a non-sensuous philosophy; and ethical 
ideals point to the future. They are ideals for that reason. Psy- 
chology does nothing for us unless it supplies them, and medicine can 
effect no permanent cures without accepting as imperative and 
primary the need of ethical adjustments. It will have to make mind 
the cause and effect, to speak paradoxically, of all that it does ac- 
complish, if it expects to achieve its best conquests. Indeed religion 
and medicine will have to join partnership again and they can do 
this only by one of them abandoning materialism and the other 
accepting science as its guide. The one should be no more a com- 
mercial business than the other, but commercial they must both 
be, when materialism is our only philosophy. 

Public opinion has accepted materialism without knowing what it 
means, and it pays its servants according to their power and will- 
ingness to pander to its wants. Education and religion are or- 
ganized for catering to materialism and no scientific truth is sought, 
except such as may come from the accidents of that organization or 
from the necessity of supplying material wants. Respectability is 
on the side of materialism, and spiritualism, which had ruled eight- 
een centuries of civilization, badly enough, it is true, but with more 
success than either Greece or Rome achieved, is forsaken and for- 



PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION AND MEDICINE 441 

lorn and left to foster its faith without evidence. Fortunately it 
is rapidly gaining a position from which it may issue with " grim 
fire-eyed defiance " to challenge any dispute of its claims. It will 
then dictate terms to religion and medicine, to the one without dis- 
turbing its faith and to the other without disturbing its science, and 
psychology will come again to serve them both, recovering its right- 
ful domain in cultivating the wider interests of man. 

Man first placed the golden age in the dim vistas of the past, but 
philosophy and science soon showed that it was only mythological. 
Christian idealism, accepting the legend of paradise and man's 
fallen estate, making the present carnal life one of sin and suffer- 
ing, placed its golden age in the future where it seemed safer from 
attack. Legend may be assaulted by history, but imagination can 
only be ignored or ridiculed. Faith proved a stronger fortress 
than tradition, which dissolves in the light of science like a morning 
mist before the sun. Yet science with its materialism and re- 
doubtable energies came again to conquer the world from illusion 
and in doing so left nothing but darkness. But mariners will not 
sail the seas without a harbor in which to anchor and something 
to requite their toil. There is no commerce with the unknown, and 
hence it will devolve upon science either to submit to some other 
source of knowledge and governance or to give us a religion that 
shall be stronger than faith and more adventurous than doubt. 
" Science," says Lord Morley, who was saturated with the philoso- 
phy of the Encyclopedists, ^' when she has accomplished all her tri- 
umphs in her own order, will still have to go back, when the time 
comes, to assist in building up a new creed by which man may live." 
That time has come, and recreant or cowardly is the man who does 
not seize the opportunity to shield the ideals that may bring a " little 
sheen of inspiration out of the surrounding eternity to color with 
its own hues man's little islet of time." All action has its fruition 
in the future and we must see the prospect before we can act ration- 
ally. Only he who has hope can be moved to any ventures that have 
ideahsm for their motive or progress for their rational end. 

For my purpose holds 
To sail beyond the sunset and the baths 
Of all the western stars, until I die. 



442 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: 
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles 
And see the great Achilles whom we knew. 

But in the travail of that voyage the light of science and hope 
may reveal, in the cross section of evolution which we study, some 
vision of eternal life, and the final moments which the gloomy fears 
instigated by materialism have saddened, may be cheered by a 
greater outlook, and man, chastened by toil and pain, may be happy 
yet. / 



CHAPTER XXIX 
PSYCHIC RESEARCH AND THE WAR 

THIS age is so practical that men engaged in any work are 
expected to defend it by showing its relation to the prob- 
lems with which the world is immediately concerned. 
We cannot get a hearing unless we satisfy the public that we can 
contribute to its ends. Each science tries to vindicate itself by 
declaring what it does for the general welfare or for the solution 
of the problems confronting civilization. Most of the sciences 
have a direct relation to practical problems. Many, therefore, will 
ask whether psychic research can help to solve the world problems 
of the day. Those who are interested in the question whether we 
live after death will have no difficulty in answering the question. 
But those who are absorbed in material affairs may ridicule or 
neglect the remote issues of a problem like psychic research. To 
most people it seems a vain endeavor to lift the veil of existence. 
Their assumption is that Isis must always remain veiled and that 
man's business Is only with the world of sense. Like the ancient 
Greeks, who thought that the gods lived in an intermundane world 
where they could exercise no influence on terrestrial events, they 
disconnect spirit from earthly affairs and await in sullen or happy 
indifference the end of life and the world. 

But the psychic researcher has a problem of more immediate 
interest than the skeptic and the Philistine dream of. We are 
not seeking to establish remote relationships when we assert that 
psychic research bears directly on the problems of war. People 
easily see that wheat, turnips, and pig iron affect the issues of 
civilization, but they less clearly realize the place of psychic phe- 
nomena in determining history. 

If psychic research were occupied merely with a few oddities of 
mental experience it might well be said to have no connection with 
the war. If it were exclusively concerned with phenomena like 

443 



444 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

telepathy or mind-reading, or with coincidental dreams, or with the 
mysteries of the diving- rod, a man would be foolhardy who essayed 
to speak of its importance in the problems of war, unless he could 
show its direct connection with the one consideration that makes 
war a nightmare to the better members of the human race. We 
may explore the marginal phenomena of the mind all we please and 
find no practical interest in them, until we find their relation to the 
one pivotal interest of human reflection; namely, the immortality 
of the soul. We may criticize human nature, justly or unjustly, 
for its obsession with this idea. We may contend that man is too 
much concerned with the other world and too little concerned with 
his daily duties in this world. But this criticism does not alter 
the facts. The practical problem is to deal with facts as they 
are and to consider what effect a belief has, whether or not it is 
justifiable. Hence in any preliminary discussion of this problem 
we are concerned not with what is ideally preferable, but with 
the actual state of mind that determines human conduct. Psychic 
research would have little interest for most people, if it did not 
bear upon this large question of the nature and destiny of the 
human mind. Its subsidiary phenomena might otherwise interest 
only men who seek to amuse themselves with abnormalities. But 
the scientific study of the relation between matter and mind shows 
many of the phenomena of psychic research to be crucial in deter- 
mining the meaning of all mental facts. There are marginal phe- 
nomena which suggest that consciousness and personality are not 
bubbles on the ocean, soon lost in its engulfing embrace. Appari- 
tions, mediumistic communications with the dead, and suggestions 
of a transcendental world that reveal an infinite scope for the mind 
give the subject an interest and importance scarcely equaled since 
the speculations of Plato and the teachings of Christ. 

How does the belief in immortality affect the problems of war? 
What are the problems of war? The answers to these questions 
are not simple. But the one element that enters into both answers 
is the problem of death. If war were a pugilistic encounter, in 
which both combatants come out alive, psychic research would have 
nothing to do with the issue. But the central interests in war are 
human ideals and death. In war death comes to the strongest of 



PSYCHIC RESEARCH AND THE WAR 445 

the race and comes without the ordinary calculations and risks of 
life. In the normal conditions of existence, the healthy man has 
no time or interest to spend in thinking about death. The attain- 
ment of our ideals is the object of action and when these pre- 
occupy attention the prospect of death fades into the margin of con- 
sciousness. If we cannot achieve our aims and are attacked by 
disease, we lose interest in life and calmly await the end. It is 
true that human kind cannot be classified in this hard and fast 
way. For there are large numbers that can never lose sight of the 
grave in their thought and action. But the majority of men are 
Stoics, if not in virtue, in the habit of taking things as they come 
and wasting as little energy as possible on the fear of death. Lack 
of time, or fear of losing the game, keeps the dread spectre below the 
horizon. But when war confronts us, it brings certainties and 
risks that we do not have to meet in the regular course of normal 
life. The one thing that hovers always in the field of consciousness 
is the prospect of losing life and ideals at one stroke; the ques- 
tion for the man who values his present existence is whether the 
sacrifice is worth while. Death or maiming for life confronts the 
soldier every day of his career, and he will feel the tragedy of the 
situation in proportion to the value which he places on life. 

If we asserted that a belief in immortality is essential to the mak- 
ing of good soldiers, that unqualified statement would meet with 
instant denial. There are instances in which the belief has favor- 
ably afifected the character and the courage of soldiers. All will 
agree that the courage of the Japanese in the war against Russia 
was increased by their belief in survival and a future meeting with 
their ancestors. The Crusaders also were influenced by their be- 
lief in immortality. And we could perhaps find many races pro- 
foundly influenced in their martial life and ideals by this beHef. 
But it is far from universal. Whole races in the past either did not 
have the belief at all, or held it in a form that did not connect it 
with martial valor. Savages are usually little influenced by it. 
The Greeks and Romans, especially the latter, were not primarily 
affected in military affairs by the belief in immortality. Other 
motives were substituted for it. The Roman race was essentially 
Stoic in temperament, long before the philosophy of that name or- 



446 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

ganized reasons for its view of life. Roman citizens died for the 
state and did not expect to reap a reward in another world for 
their heroism, though we can find among them individual excep- 
tions. It was Christianity that gave the doctrine of the immortality 
of the soul an important place in the philosophy of conduct. 
Christianity emphasized the belief so strongly and merged other 
interests in it in such a manner that it became the pivotal doctrine 
of the system. The belief in immortality is certainly not essential 
to the formation of the heroic virtues of the soldier, and it would 
be folly for any man to insist that it always has this effect on life 
and character. All depends on the place it occupies in the social 
and individual scheme of life. Its importance will depend entirely 
on its relation to the rest of our beliefs. 

I said above that the influence of the belief on conduct will depend 
on the value which we attach to the present life. If we do not value 
this life, we are not likely to place any high value on Hfe after 
death. Emphasis on the importance of death is proportionate to 
interest in present living. When it is not mere desire of living 
that determines our actions, but some principle, such as patriotism, 
the family, science, literature, or success, we are apt to put the 
idea of survival in a secondary place among motives. But if we 
regard the joys of physical life either as above all others or as the 
only joys we are sure of, we thus emphasize the importance of death 
as the termination of them. Now the materialistic philosophy 
emphasizes the idea that death is the end of all things and assures 
us that we are not certain of any other happiness than what we 
can attain in the present. It thus cuts off the unsuccessful from 
any hope of realizing natural ambitions and assures all persons 
that the shortening of life is so much unrequited sacrifice. In an 
age of little comfort and hard living, the passions of luxury and 
avarice have no place ; and when happiness is hardly attainable on 
any terms, the sacrifice of life is easy. The comforts and luxuries 
which science and invention have brought to modern life make life 
so attractive that death, if not feared, is at least hated. When in 
doiibt about a future life man tries to prolong consciousness in 
present conditions and endeavors to stave off the fatal day of death, 
bec^U^e he feels no assurance that there is anything for his per- 



PSYCHIC RESEARCH AND THE WAR 447 

sonality beyond the grave. What he can achieve here he is cer- 
tain of. What the future holds in store for him is unknown, and 
the unknown is no incentive to action. But if he is sure that death 
is not the end of all things and that it only brings a change of en- 
vironment; that it only continues life, and that it brings a reward 
for deeds well done, he meets it cheerfully and giving up this life 
is no sacrifice to him. 

Lucretius, the Roman materialist, regarded the fear of death 
as the greatest evil man has to face, and St. Paul accepted the same 
view of it. But each had a different solution of the problem. 
Lucretius thought to overcome this fear by teaching man the doc- 
trine of annihilation. St. Paul endeavored to overcome it by 
teaching immortality. But in the present state of human opinion 
no man can expect to dispel this evil by denying immortality. Sur- 
vival after death may not be a fact ; but annihilation is none the 
less dreaded. If the existence and prolongation of consciousness 
can be proved to be evil, men may logically be taught that it should 
be destroyed. But the average healthy man will not be influenced 
by the doctrine that suicide is his duty or his salvation ! 

The view of life after death as somewhat like the Hades of 
ancient superstitions or the sulphurous hell of some later ages, 
makes the fear of death natural. It was possibly such a concep- 
tion that aroused the hostility of Epicurus and Lucretius. A life 
after death which only brought more suffering might well suggest 
the desirability of annihilation. The materialism of Lucretius was 
a moral protest against an absurd and unjust hell rather than against 
the prolongation of consciousness. St. Paul saw the problem in 
a clearer light, and distinguished between survival and suffering. 
Christianity emphasized salvation quite as much as immortality. 
St. Paul saw that the fear of death could not be eradicated from 
the normal man by a doctrine of eternal sleep. If man looks on 
consciousness as a good, he is not likely to ask for its termination 
as the great desideratum. He will w^ant to prolong it. 

Now in opposition to materialism Christianity taught the in- 
finite value of the soul and of consciousness. It emphasized life 
and not death as the highest good. It regarded suffering as a pun- 
ishment for immoral conduct, not as the caprices of fortune, and 



448 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

so kept a possibility of permanent happiness before the imagina- 
tion. In this way it established a love of life which, owing to 
the precarious fortunes of war and the suffering prevalent in some 
ancient civilizations, hitherto had little opportunity for expression 
and cultivation. Then with its assurance of life after death, it 
could face the future with hope ; and hope is always the foundation 
of rational endeavor. It organized civilization on this basis for 
many centuries and fixed in the human mind expectations which 
the materialist could not support. When modern materialism came 
forward with a doctrine of annihilation, it opposed the estab- 
lished ideals of man. It does not degrade or impeach the pleasures 
of living. It places all man's hopes in the prudent and intelligent 
pursuit of material good. It places a value on life and yet has to 
admit that death ends it. It discourages the soldier by asking 
him to make all the sacrifices while the survivors of war enjoy all 
the rewards. It laughs at the vicarious atonement taught by re- 
ligion and yet asks the soldier to perform it. It expects a man 
to give up all that is dear to him without hope of reward, though 
it estimates value only in terms of wages and profits. On the 
theory of materialism man can act only on self-interest in peace 
and only on self-sacrifice in war. A philosophy which cannot ob- 
serve the same maxims in peace as in w^ar is destined to easy 
refutation. But when the doctrine of self-interest is adopted, it 
dominates the whole attitude towards death. Good soldiers can- 
not be made from men who measure life by its rewards and yet 
are asked to relinquish all reward in facing a death that offers them 
only annihilation. 

In this age, therefore, a belief in immortality will help to pro- 
duce soldierly qualities. I shall agree at the outset, however, that 
many persons are not influenced by such a faith. Their sense of 
right and justice is sufficient to make them disregard desire of re- 
ward in another life, and, like the Roman Stoics, they sacrifice 
life without thinking of any future. Their willingness to act with- 
out hope or expectation of reward shows a character which is 
perhaps more highly respected by the community than if they 
sought a reward for their action. Some will serve the right, though 
the heavens fall, and ask no rewards here or hereafter. Even the 



PSYCHIC RESEARCH AND THE WAR 449 

man who acts from passion may disregard consequences. The 
old Roman Stoic philosophers took a very uncompromising atti- 
tude toward all emotional considerations in conduct, and thought a 
man a sentimentalist, a weakling, who allowed undue grief, or even 
any grief, to affect him under the loss of friends or loved ones. 
They demanded the complete sacrifice of emotion as the sign of 
virtue or manliness. But, as Mr. Lecky finely remarks, this 
philosophy will not successfully lead men who are not Stoics. The 
majority of men and women ^ct from motives very different from 
those enjoined by philosophers. Whether weak or strong, these 
men have to be reckoned with in the problems of life, individual and 
social. Most men are governed by some expectation of reward in 
their lives; indeed in all ordinary affairs any other course is irra- 
tional. The man who has amassed a large fortune may work for 
nothing, but he has already satisfied his ambition for independence. 
Like all others he expected profits as the wages and reward for 
action, often wholly disproportionate to the amount of labor per- 
formed. In such a world we can not afford to disregard the prac- 
tical consideration of rewards or consequences. With this con- 
sideration dominating most men, whether it be the highest motive of 
action or not, a belief in survival may be reckoned with as an 
incentive. It can be used to influence those who would otherwise 
be cowards in the struggle for right. Much cowardice comes from 
the love of life. Many of our pacifists are too cowardly to admit 
that it is want of moral courage that determines their pacifism. 
They disguise it under the name of conscientious scruples against 
war. Conscientiousness is regarded as a virtue, and if the coward 
can deceive the public by assuming the garb of conscientiousness, 
and thus disguising his cowardice, he may keep the respect of the 
public or at least ward off its contempt. 

The resentment against the draft was probably in large measure 
due to exaltation of the love of life above devotion to the prin- 
ciple of sacrifice for justice and for posterity. Under a volunteer 
system the belief in immortality has less influence than under a draft 
system. The volunteer has moral character to start with, whether 
due to a belief in survival or not. He sees his duty and will make 
any sacrifice to perform it. But the man who will not volunteer, 



450 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

must see some reward in view beyond this life, to make him a good 
soldier. He has become so habituated to the utilitarian view of life 
that he must be made to see that he loses nothing by giving his life 
for an unpersonal ideal of country, family, or justice. If men are 
convinced that death brings no cessation of their development, they 
will be good soldiers in peace or war. For soldierly qualities are 
as important in peace as in war. Courage is not exclusively the 
virtue of the fighter. It is as necessary in social as in martial 
life. 

The pragmatist in philosophy cannot escape the view here de- 
fended. He measures all truth, especially ethical truth, by con- 
sequences. He cannot be a Stoic on the subject of a future life. 
He must estimate the truth and value of the doctrine by its con- 
sequences on the will of men. In this age, saturated as it is with 
materialistic ideals, he must recognize that immortality is cal- 
culated to reclaim the coward. If we are to sacrifice life without 
regard to consequences, we can reject pragmatism in favor of an- 
other philosophy. 

Christ made an interesting statement which seems paradoxical, 
when he said that he who would have his life must lose it. No 
saying was ever better justified than this. But it is true only 
when we understand the spiritual sense in which it is to be taken. 
No doubt there is a verbal contradiction if we take the term "life " 
in the same sense in both parts of the sentence. But if the 
teaching means that the man who voluntarily gives up his life for 
an ideal loses nothing in the economy of the cosmos, it furnishes an 
effective basis for the ethics of both peace and war. In fact, no 
man ever attains salvation in any other way. The mother and 
father who are tormented by the fear that a son will be killed in 
the war, forget that his sacrifice, if voluntary, is his salvation. His 
life in peace might have been anything but his salvation. But 
when he resolves to be a man and to stand for right in the world, 
and is willing to give up his life for that service, he is saved. 
Most Christians worship their Savior because he sacrificed his 
life on the cross for their redemption, but they do not want their 
sons to follow his example ! They accept the vicarious atonement, 
but are not willing to make it. 



PSYCHIC RESEARCH AND THE WAR 451 

If psychic research can assure men of a life beyond death, it will 
put the materialistic love of physical life to shame. There can be 
no doubt that the materialist is right, if he can show that no life 
after death is possible. Man must then make the most of the 
present and perform as few sacrifices as possible to attain his ends. 
But if it is certain that consciousness and personality continue be- 
yond the grave, it will be much easier to surrender the present and 
to live the heroic virtues. Indeed they will even be less '' heroic." 
We admire the hero for the sacrifice he makes ; but if losing one's 
life is gaining it, nature requires no such sacrifices of us as the 
Stoic demands. Sacrifice is not ultimately sacrifice. We make 
it such only by our false theories. In fact, we might say that our 
admiration is directly proportioned to our unwillingness to be heroes 
ourselves. It is the coward who most admires courage. \ The sol- 
dier does not think of his virtues nor of his right to the respect 
of his fellows. He is not actuated by the desire to be thought 
heroic ; so much the more, then, he needs to be led away from the 
temptation to value his life according to the pleasures he can secure 
if he refuses sacrifice in behalf of his country or justice. Psychic 
research, at least as a part of its service, can administer a benefit to 
the world, if it can remove all temptation to disregard the appeal 
to duty and to higher ideals. 

Selfishness is the only sin. It has many ramifications; but all 
other sins can be interpreted as forms of selfishness and all vir- 
tues as self-sacrifice. This maxim once seized, the path of duty 
is clear to every man. The soldier may commit mistakes of judg- 
ment ; he may fight on the wrong side ; but if his will is right he will 
not suffer the consequences of bad character. He will have made 
self-sacrifice the center to which all other forms of virtue gravitate. 
Any maxim, once adopted, determines of the place of all others 
in the system of conduct, and serves as the test for their adoption 
or rejection. Supreme devotion to duty at the sacrifice of life is 
the one revolutionary decision for every man to make; his life 
then conforms to the order of the cosmos and his salvation is as- 
sured. It is assured because his life goes on, and his compensation 
is the permanent consciousness of having done the right thing and 
paid the price. In such a system the continuity of life assures the 



X 



452 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

compensation and shows just what estimate nature puts upon the 
present life. Materialistic systems make present advantage only 
standard of value. But ideals can be realized only in the future. 
No act of will takes place without having future consequences as 
the determinant of its moral value. That is why belief in survival 
is a condition of the highest ethical life, even though humanity has 
not always made the best use of it as a motive. 

Salvation is a state of mind, not any external achievement. We 
may fail in business or in any other effort to which we devote life ; 
but if we have the right state of mind, we gain a success worth 
more than the accumulation of material goods. This state of mind 
will constitute the source of happiness in another world and will 
serve as the condition for proper adjustment to the future life, as 
it is also in the present existence, if we would only see it. Hence 
the sacrifices that the soldier makes help to fix his character and 
to save him from the epicurean temptations of ordinary life. 

Peace may be a worse state of civilization than war. It often 
gives an opportunity for the vice and revelry that affect character 
more harmfully than war can do. To be sure, war is not always 
good; it is never right on the part of the deliberate aggressor, 
though it is right on the part of the defender against wanton ag- 
gression. Its value is determined by the motives and ideals of the 
parties involved. War is better than peace when it is waged for 
ideals better than those of peace. The argument against war is its 
unnecessary waste and loss in promoting civilization. Devotion to 
the cause of human brotherhood and reason might effect the same 
result without the destruction involved in war. Peace, however, 
may cultivate vices and sins worse than those of war, and fatal to 
the spiritual development of man. If peace bred the sacrifices and 
virtues of war, then war would not be necessary. But war is only 
the natural consequence of the vices which we mistake for civiliza- 
tion. In peace we lie and cheat, in war we kill ; and salvation can 
be obtained by neither course. 

If we can scientifically guarantee a future life we shall have 
shown that nature values personality or consciousness more highly 
than physical life, and we shall be in a position to urge the realiza- 
tion of human brotherhood with tenfold force. If any message 



PSYCHIC RESEARCH AND THE WAR 453 

from the spiritual world can be accepted because of its frequent 
repetition, it is that human brotherhood, human love, alone guar- 
antees salvation. If that attitude, the conduct inspired by it, were 
established as the basis of social life, wars would cease and peace 
would not breed the sins that inevitably lead to war. 

Many of the psychic phenomena of interest to the public in con- 
nection with the present war have not been sufficiently accredited 
to be valuable as evidence. The stories of the apparitions at Mons 
have not been scientifically verified. The newspaper story of Mr. 
Machen, which innocently gave rise to one of the most important 
legends, though written with no intention of misleading readers, 
was believed by thousands. When the author saw how it was being 
taken, he publicly announced that it was fiction. Probably " The 
White Comrade " is genuine, and possibly there have been many 
apparitions seen by individual soldiers, as we might expect in any 
case. But intelligent men will be cautious about using these for 
evidence of survival or of spirit intervention. Even when they 
occur and are more than ordinary hallucinations, they may not 
be what the popular mind supposes. Visions of Joan of Arc or of 
Napoleon might be veridical without actually representing these 
personalities. Veridical hallucinations are not representative, but 
symbolic. They may be externally and spiritually instigated, but 
subjectively formed. Our own memories and ideals may give form 
to the apparition even when it is caused by a spirit. There is over- 
whelming evidence that messages from a transcendental world are 
modified by the mind that receives them. Our organic habits give 
them their shape, so that the utmost that we can affirm is that they 
indicate foreign causes, subjectively interpreted. Hence the whole 
subject of the apparitions recorded in current stories, must be left 
to much more careful investigation than has yet been possible. 
The evidence of survival and of spirit intervention must be of a 
different kind. What these psychic experiences show is the place 
that psychic research may have in helping to solve world problems. 
It transfigures life, or at least the possibilities of life, in a way 
impossible to materialistic science. 



CHAPTER XXX 
PSYCHICS AND POLITICS 

WALTER BAGEHOT chose '' Physics and Politics " as 
the title of one of his books, though he did not discuss 
in it the influence of physical science upon social and 
political life. What he did consider was the influence of heredity 
on the body politic. This study might have led him to look much 
deeper and to see the far larger, though latent, influence of the 
modern interest in physical science upon the tendencies of politics. 
At any rate, Mr. Bagehot's juxtaposition of the two terms suggests 
a contrast between the physical and the spiritual conceptions of life 
and their ultimate influence on ethical, social, and political affairs. 
The clearly developed opposition between mind and matter, which 
finally issued in the definite dualism of Descartes^ gathered about 
each term the appropriate associations. Under different auspices 
the development might have taken another course, but the antithesis 
between the Epicurean conception of nature and life and the sternly 
moralistic Christian idea of the soul created opposing centers of 
gravity for men's beliefs. History records the varying fortunes of 
their warfare. 

Physical science is occupied with the observation and study of 
the material world, and teaches that the external forces of the uni- 
verse move relentlessly over every aspiration cherished by the re- 
ligious mind. Psychology, or the study of the soul, has always 
sought in the inner life some justification of the belief in another 
life when the grave has closed over all we know, a hope that would 
at least set aside the apparent indifference of the universe to the 
ideals which arise in the creatures of its own activity. At one 
stage of human reflection the opposition between the two points of 
view was not so marked ; but the predisposition to uncompromising 
separation of interests and to the organization of these interests 
into opposing groups, has given matter and mind, physics and 

454 



PSYCHICS AND POLITICS 



455 



psychics, opposite meanings. Ideas once accepted by large bodies 
of men are not easily set aside. They either become identified with 
the institutions that serve as their defence, or habit gives them a 
force which they might not have. Consequently, regardless of their 
intrinsic merits, they give rise to parties and prejudices which can- 
not be overthrown except by the prolonged efforts of criticism and 
the gradual adjustment of the mind to new ideas. 

I have said, or implied, that physical science has exercised a 
profound influence upon modern social and political life. This 
influence may be illustrated in a thousand ways. I need not call 
attention at present to the initial impulse of the movement, which 
began with the renaissance as a reaction against the excessive occu- 
pation of men's minds with the other world. To contrast the 
civilizations of the Middle Ages and the present would be to bring 
out into strong relief the two different tendencies and would clearly 
exhibit the influences which have gradually resulted in the domi- 
nation of physical science over the life of man. If we compare 
the meager comforts and enjoyments of the first fifteen centuries 
of the Christian era with the multiplied resources for pleasure 
which we now possess, and consider the reluctance of the material 
universe to concede any favors not extorted from it, we shall form 
some conception of the power of physical science. The railway, 
the telegraph, the telephone, ocean travel, the mechanical inventions 
that cheapen labor and multiply products, cheap printing, and a 
thousand forms of satisfaction and comfort that ancient and medi- 
aeval societies would not have dreamed of, are now the common- 
places of the poor. They are all due to physical science, which 
had to win its way against the stubborn opposition of more con- 
servative beliefs and habits. They are all indications of the effect 
of physics on our institutions. 

The economic ideal, which is only another term for the physical 
conception of society and human action, is now dominant, and 
wealth is the standard of success and social recognition. This 
standard has been accepted even by the religious institutions of the 
age; and we have so far departed from the spiritual conception of 
life as to neglect all features of it except intellectual culture, which 
is valued more for its efiiciency in the economic and social world 



456 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

than for the development of the soul. Such are the triumphs of 
physical science and the ideals fostered by it. Its utility is demon- 
strated by its success in supplying the comforts which seem to us 
both a pleasure in themselves and a protection against the cruelties 
of nature. The older religious ideals, which despised these com- 
forts as " carnal " and turned the imagination toward another world, 
the " Elysian fields where joy forever reigns," as contrasted with this 
life of pain and suffering, have lost the basis on which they rested. 
We have found physical and economic salvation in the conquest of 
nature, instead of despising its power and living in penury and con- 
templative asceticism. Physics has determined and dominated all 
the ideals of our life and must affect our ethics in proportion as it 
has supplanted the spiritual conceptions of another philosophy. 
How far this influence will extend depends upon the degree to 
which it takes possession of the lower strata of society. 

The rejuvenation of the social order and of civilization fell to 
Christianity after the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. The 
one central tenet of Christianity is its association of the immortality 
of the soul with the brotherhood of man. It did not begin in a 
system of philosophy or theology. A reasoned theism was no part 
of its primary impulse, however closely it might be related to such 
a system. The divine supervision of the world was not its funda- 
mental belief, though it might be accepted as a corollary of the 
primary doctrine. The belief in a future life was its initial doc- 
trine, and received its credentials from an appeal to real or alleged 
facts. The view that immortality can be accepted as the corollary 
of a theistic interpretation of nature was a later conception, arising 
when Christianity was so far removed from its origin that its 
miracles and traditions were objects of suspicion. This first in- 
spiration was received from the direct observation of facts, or 
alleged facts, which directly challenged the prevailing materialism. 
The Epicureans had denied the possibility of survival after death, 
and their philosophy dominated Rome in its declining days and the 
most important political sect in Palestine, the Sadducees. Judaism 
was no longer under the direction of its older religious conceptions, 
which had indeed never made belief in the immortality of the soul 
a social influence. Such a belief could not become important to 



PSYCHICS AND POLITICS 



457 



social institutions until it was used to enforce certain ethical maxims. 
What gave the immortality of the soul its ethical and political value 
was its association with the brotherhood of man in the doctrine of 
salvation. Neither Judaistic nor Greek civilization attached any 
special importance to the doctrine as a means of enjoining the vir- 
tues that would lead to happiness beyond the grave. The doctrine 
of probation for a future Hfe had not yet developed. It was latent 
in the religions of Greece and Rome and was perhaps an uncon- 
scious factor in the ethical position of some Hebrews, though it was 
not sufficiently active in that religious system to obtain any definite 
recognition. In Greco-Roman literature a doctrine of probation 
as an encouragement of virtue is apparent. We all know it in the 
works of Plato and Vergil, and they but reflected, in this respect, the 
popular religion, so that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul 
as held by them already foreshadowed the later view of salvation. 
It did not, however, take on the fire and enthusiasm of a religion 
until social and political life began to break up and men felt that 
there was no hope of realizing their ideals in a world that offered 
so much resistance to their struggles. Physics and politics were 
against them, the one making creature comforts, the other social 
freedom impossible to obtain. In this condition of things it was 
natural to turn the eyes to some future world either as a reward 
for following duty or as a punishment for transgression. In this 
•way the thought of immortality began to encourage the perform- 
ance of duties hitherto sanctioned only by society ; and the happiness 
which a decaying world could not grant in this life was hoped for 
in another. The organization of virtue and happiness around the 
concept of a future Hfe gave it the power to influence ethics and 
politics. The assertion of the persistence of personality was im- 
portant to the individual, and the association of the idea with human 
brotherhood gave it an influence on political institutions. 

In the present age, which represents a reaction against the ex- 
treme other-worldliness of the mediaeval period, there are many 
who will question the value of belief in immortality. They will 
point to the superior civilization which has been the result of the 
conquests of physical science. While I shall not gainsay much that 
is urged in support of this contention, I may call attention to two 



458 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

facts. The first is, that all this conquest of nature was rendered 
possible by the firm estabhshment in men's minds of the virtues 
which gave stability to the social order and so made possible the 
continuity of scientific progress. The second is, that we are too 
closely attached to a materialistic order as yet to see its tendencies 
and consequences, except as they are beginning to reveal themselves 
in the decadence of the virtues that protected the advance of physi- 
cal science itself. Moreover the materialist may not be in a posi- 
tion to estimate rightly the nature of the order which he denies. 
His victories over the physical world, in subordinating it to his 
desires, may blind him to the value of what he lost by turning his 
view from the spiritual conception of man and hfe. The distortion 
of this conception in the past has concealed from us the better 
aspects of the spiritual ideal; and, while we are forced by our 
nature to make concessions to the demands of the physical world, it 
is just as easy to overestimate the value of the physical as of the 
spiritual. We may therefore turn a scrutinizing and skeptical eye 
toward the confident worship of physical science which is trying to 
supplant the conceptions that have made us rise above nature while 
we conquered it. 

However, we may disregard the question of ethical value and 
limit our consideration to the efificacy of the spiritual view as an 
agent in the determination of human institutions. The Middle 
Ages are proof of the power of belief in a future life to affect civil 
institutions. That influence may have been good or bad. But its 
effectiveness as a motive is well authenticated by twenty centuries of 
history. What I wish to show is that all general ideas inevitably 
affect ethical and political institutions in proportion to their suc- 
cess in organizing about them the various customs and duties which 
they are made to protect. If other general ideas are thus effective, 
we may establish a presumption that the belief of immortality is of 
similar character. This conception, with its relation to important 
ethical ideas, will hardly fall short of others in the power to mold 
human life and institutions. Let us illustrate by reference to be- 
liefs which have no ethical implications. 

The effect of a general conception on human conduct may be 
illustrated by the influence of monotheism in religion and monism 



PSYCHICS AND POLITICS 



459 



in philosophy on the tendencies of Greek politics. In the earlier 
stages of her development Greece was under the domination of 
polytheism in religion and of provincialism in politics. Indeed 
they were one and the same thing. The influence of local divini- 
ties was as noticeable as it was during the struggle of Judaism for 
Jehovah against foreign gods. Polytheism was itself the expression 
of local independence, and nothing could incite the Grecian states 
to any unity of action except threatened invasion by Persia. The 
warfare of the gods both expressed or perpetuated the same state 
of affairs in the Achaean peninsula. In the colder region of phi- 
losophy the same idea was expressed in the conception of Chaos 
followed by a multiple of elements always in the process of union 
and disruption. The religious and philosophic ideas ran parallel 
and had their influence on political action, which consisted of per- 
petual war and preparation for war. Brotherhood and the arts of 
peace were hardly possible when the gods set no ethical example 
and when nature was conceived as a chaos of elements struggling 
into a casual and transient order. 

But Xenophanes, the philosopher, came forward to express in 
one conception the unity of nature and of the Divine. He insisted, 
against both anthropomorphism and polytheism, that there was but 
one God and that he was not human in character. The philoso- 
phers, who were the educators of the statesmen, urged this view; 
and, with the rise of skepticism concerning the character of the 
gods, it gained possession of all thinking minds. Instead of a 
chaos of warring elements, the world was conceived as a cosmos, 
an orderly arrangement of harmonious elements. Hardly had 
philosophy achieved this triumph when Alexander the Great under- 
took to extend the area of empire. We must not forget that he 
was educated by Aristotle, the greatest of philosophers, and, as 
Dante called him, the " master of those who know." Aristotle may 
not have approved of the military conquests of his ward; but that 
conception of unity and order expressed in the Demiourgos of 
Plato, the Nous of Anaxagoras, and the prinmm mobile of Aris- 
totle, was the precursor of the empires of Alexander the Great and 
of Julius Caesar. It brought forth directly in the Stoics the antici- 
pation of Christianity expressed in their conception of the brother- 



460 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

hood of man. Whether because of indolence or social corruption 
and decay, they did not put their doctrine into practical effect, and 
the traditions of war kept back human redemption until another 
civilization could revive it under the wings of theism and the belief 
of immortality, when the " wars and commotions that had revolved 
through long tracts of time had terminated in one immense do- 
minion and the troubled elements of human society sank into uni- 
versal calm. The spirit of war, wearied by perpetual carnage, had 
seemed willing to enjoy a moment's slumber or was hushed into 
silence by the advent of the Prince of Peace." 

The brotherhood of man came first as the ideal of a philosophy 
unable to contend against the decadence of the social system that 
Plato had tried to preserve. But belief in the unity of nature ex- 
tended the conception of government and left to all posterity the 
ideal of a state that shall realize universal empire without conquest, 
an ideal that arbitration and the Court of The Hague are now at- 
tempting to bring about. 

Let me take, as another instance of the influence of a concept 
on conduct and politics, Copernican astronomy. Until the six- 
teenth century it was the universal belief that the sun went around 
the earth. The earth was conceived as the center of the universe 
toward which all heavy matter moved unless sustained by some 
mysterious power. There was no theory of gravity to explain this 
motion. The earth was supposed to be flat, and, without adequate 
means of navigation, there was no way to refute this hypothesis. 
The ignorance and superstition of the age prevented the exercise 
of that adventurous spirit which later surmounted so many obsta- 
cles. The known limits of the earth were very narrow, and, with 
no unifying conception like gravitation to explain the cosmos and 
the relations of its parts, the mind was left free to believe in all 
sorts of capricious powers or beings as explanation of such unity 
as was actually found. 

But the Ptolemaic system had its anomalies which appeared con- 
fusing to Copernicus. He simply asked whether the hypothesis 
that the earth moves about the sun would not satisfy all the de- 
mands of an explanation and eliminate the perplexities which had 
to be solved in the Ptolemaic system by suppositions as disturbing 



PSYCHICS AND POLITICS 461 

as the primary assumption. Copernicus saw that this new theory 
fitted, and so clear were its consequences that the priests thought to 
overthrow it by asserting that, if it were true, the planets would 
show phases as does the moon. Galileo accepted the challenge and 
pointed out the phases of Venus. From that time on the triumph 
of Copernican astronomy was assured. This discovery may be 
said to have given the initial impulse to the Protestant Reforma- 
tion. It was not so felt, nor was it a part of any conscious revolt 
against the political and ecclesiastical institutions of the Middle 
Ages, but it was a decisive triumph over accepted ideas. The stu- 
pidity of the church had given the incipient scientific spirit an op- 
portunity to display its power. That stupidity consisted in having 
linked religious beliefs too closely with the fortunes of a cosmic 
theory that was not true. At first Christianity was concerned only 
with the immortality of the soul and the brotherhood of man and 
the worship of God, without concern for any speculations about the 
nature of the world. But in becoming the heir to the Roman Em- 
pire as an agent for the reorganization of society, the church ap- 
propriated the domain of physical knowledge and associated it so 
closely with its scheme of salvation that the least break in its wall 
would threaten it with destruction. Its power frightened every 
inquirer away from the study of nature, and kept men respectfully 
silent concerning everything but the prevailing conceptions in poli- 
tics and religion, and in these fields expression had to be obsequious 
and flattering. The church had complete control of knowledge and 
behavior. ^ 

This coalition of science and religion was both a strength and a 
weakness. If religious belief had been placed upon a basis unaf- 
fected by the vicissitudes of physical science, no change in the con- 
stitution of that knowledge would have affected the fortunes of 
the church. It might have gone on in blissful peace, unharmed by 
physical discoveries. But the tendency was to associate religion 
with science, to identify it with cosmic views. The ancient toler- 
ation of all religions, the result of the politician's indifference to 
them and his exclusive interest in economic questions, had kept re- 
ligion more or less free from concern w4th physical knowledge. 
Religious people were taxed, not educated. But Christianity set a 



462 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

new example. Man was to be saved, and taxation became a sec- 
ondary interest. The church set about the unifying of human 
opinion. With the machinery of the Roman Empire in its hands, 
it could use force as well as reason to achieve this unity; and it 
used these resources with relentless energy. It was impossible to 
avoid appropriating physical science, such as it was, to this end, 
and after Paul had set the example of conceiving man's sal- 
vation as a part of the cosmic system, it was only natural that 
the church, which was at the same time the state, should monopolize 
all knowledge and determine the right to believe or not to believe. 
From the tolerance of all religious beliefs which had characterized 
Pagan policy it went to the opposite extreme of tolerating none but 
its own, and thus claimed the keys to all knowledge physical and 
spiritual, holding the scepter of political power to enforce its claims. 

It will be apparent that the whole system was thus delicately bal- 
anced. The effectual disturbance of any part of it involved the 
whole in ruin, though it would take as many ages to effect the dis- 
solution as it would take to educate the whole mass of believers. 
Copernican astronomy established the falsity of one of the funda- 
mental tenets of the church. Confidence in its authority and wis- 
dom was irretrievably shaken by the proof that the Ptolemaic con- 
ception of celestial action was false. To yield without resistance 
and to reconstruct its position in accordance with the new point of 
view was as much the policy of wisdom as it was of allegiance 
to the truth. But the church would have none of this policy. It 
forced Copernicus to recant and threatened Galileo with the stake. 
It clearly saw the consequences of the new^ knowledge and thought 
to controvert its influence. No doubt there were sporadic and 
perhaps frequent cases of skepticism throughout this period, but 
the skeptic is not usually a missionary and is adept in the prudences 
which center about self-preservation ; besides, the power of those in 
authority was so great as to make any other course than prudence 
appear foolhardy. Only when a man had the courage of a martyr 
would he venture to question the integrity of the system under which 
he lived. 

It is to be remarked that those who sought to correct the scien- 
tific beliefs of the time still sincerely adhered to the religious doc- 



PSYCHICS AND POLITICS 



463 



trines of the church. But the ecclesiastical tribunal insisted that 
physical science was intimately bound up with its scheme of salva- 
tion and spiritual philosophy. It was determined that the new 
view of the cosmos should not prevail, and thus exposed itself to 
the tremendous consequences of Galileo's telescope, which gave 
actual sensible proof of what the priests themselves had said should 
follow from the claims of Copernicus. No more effective mode of 
silencing opposition could have been devised. It took time to effect 
the final overthrow of ecclesiastical domination, but the coming 
destruction was evident in this one incident in the career of scholas- 
ticism. There followed Kepler's theory that the planetary orbits 
were ellipses, and both Galileo and Kepler prepared the way for 
Newton's theory of universal gravitation. Then came the theory 
of evolution, which did for time what Newton and Copernicus had 
done for space, unifying cosmic causal action in both spheres, in 
direct antagonism to the dogmas of the church. 

On its practical side, this new astronomy gave impetus to the 
curiosity which led to the theory of Columbus that land should be 
found on the opposite side of the earth. The next inevitable step 
was to penetrate beyond the limitations of vision which the sea 
placed upon human knowledge. To establish a reason for under- 
taking such a journey, Columbus had to use the difference between 
the specific gravity of water and of solid matter to prove that there 
must be land at the antipodes to balance the protrusion of the 
European continent from the ocean. Step by step the whole sys- 
tem of knowledge and economic interest led to this issue. America 
opened up to the imagination and cupidity of Europe such a field 
of adventure and exploitation as made the Crusades appear worth- 
less in comparison. But all was done in the name and under the 
protection of religion. Neither an avowed nor a concealed attack 
on that system was involved. The new opportunity for adventure 
and for the acquisition of wealth could easily claim and receive the 
patronage of the church. The ultimate influence of the new dis- 
coveries on religious belief was not apparent. But the discovery 
of the new world was only another result of the initial conception 
of Copernicus. 

The next step was a direct assault on the authority of the Pope 



464 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

and an attack on the church in its central position. The Protestant 
Reformation simply marked the growth of the skepticism which 
had been encouraged by the triumph of Galileo when he exhibited 
to every human eye the phases of Venus. Physical science had by 
this time established its claim to a hearing, more or less regardless 
of the consequences to traditional dogma. Its votaries, however, 
still claimed allegiance to the church and tried to enlist the new 
knowledge in its defence. But the Reformation emancipated 
thought sufficiently to free it from any need of defending itself 
by obsequiousness, and physical science soon took a course which 
placed it in antagonism to religion. The freedom of conscience 
was only a corollary to the freedom of the intellect, which was 
established beyond the right of cavil by the death-blow dealt by 
Copernicus to the Ptolemaic system of astronomy. 

No better illustration of the influence of an idea, worked out 
into its logical consequences, on the common conceptions of man- 
kind could be imagined. If astronomy had been a matter of in- 
terest to only a small clique of philosophers, its influence would 
have extended no farther. But the sense-perception of men was 
so identified with the Ptolemaic system that a direct and intelligent 
assault upon it was necessary to show the senses their error. Proof 
of the fallibility of those who had been the depositors of all knowl- 
edge disturbed the general confidence and established a new source 
of knowledge and a new standard for scientific discovery and ad- 
vancement. The supremacy of the church was doomed from that 
moment, though it took many centuries to complete its downfall, 
aided by the inventions that, under the direction of physical science, 
have so cheapened the spread of knowledge that it comes within the 
reach of the multitude. The printing press and the invention of 
paper made this dissemination possible ; but they would hardly have 
had permission so to extend knowledge but for the weakness of the 
church after the enforced surrender of its old authority as the pro- 
tector of all human beliefs. The keystone of its arch was its 
cosmogony; and, when Copernicus removed this, it fell into ruins, 
though it took time to relax the cohesiveness of its parts. The 
whole of modern history was determined by this one revolution in 



PSYCHICS AND POLITICS 465 

thought. The same development might indeed have occurred with- 
out these specific discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo; but these 
were crucial events in the actual series that constitute history. It 
is certain that the break in the wall was actually accomplished by 
Copernicus, no matter how many before him may have seen or 
felt its weakness. The initial impulse to revolution was given by 
his conception of the cosmos, though it might not have proved 
effective but for the sympathy and aid that he received from the 
intellectual preparation prevalent among his contemporaries. This 
one idea was the rallying point for reconstruction, and must have 
the credit of starting human knowledge upon the course of its sub- 
sequent development. 

No one can directly trace the effect of this scientific revolution 
upon politics, but it is nevertheless a remote consequence of Co- 
pernican astronomy that our political institutions are what they 
are. No political freedom is possible until men have obtained in- 
tellectual freedom, and no one had this intellectual freedom until 
the progress of physical science and discovery had shown that the 
church held false views of the universe. Church and state were 
so closely associated that the slightest disturbance of their union 
was sure to make itself felt throughout the whole organism. The 
Reformation recognized this relation, and, after trying to obtain 
its freedom without a break with the papal system, Germany ob- 
tained it only by the use of political power. England soon followed 
under Henry VIII, and the papal power began to weaken. 
Gradually Europe threw off the shackles and the papal supremacy 
remained intact only in Italy and Spain, until at last Italy confined 
the political dominion of the papacy to the Vatican. But states 
could not throw off the yoke of the church without teaching their 
subjects the same rebellious spirit. Men had already learned to 
distrust the authority of the priest, first in science and finally in 
religion. But gradually the spirit which had led men to resist au- 
thority on scientific questions expressed itself in opposition to the 
arbitrary powers of government, and representative institutions 
were the consequence. Political freedom is thus traceable to the 
work of Copernicus in disputing the Ptolemaic astronomy. I shall 



7x 



466 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

not venture to assert that this one early astronomic discovery was 
the only force leading to the final result, but it is entitled to prece- 
dence in the estimation of causes. 

We see, therefore, in the history of conceptions, those of the 
unity of the world and of the Copernican astronomy, the ultimate 
influence of ideas on social and political institutions. Both were 
scientific doctrines, yet they affected such remote concerns as con- 
stitutions and governments. 

We are all familiar with the influence of the theory of evolution 
on modern ideas of nature and man, and with its destructive effect 
on the older ethical ideas and institutions. It has given impetus 
to the materialistic tendencies of the age, initiated by the physical 
discoveries of the past, and its influence has not yet reached its 
climax. But I shall not work out the details of this last agency in 
modifying our conceptions of nature and man. It suffices to have 
shown the social and political effects of two great physical doc- 
trines, and then to ask whether any special conception of man and 
his destiny can have a similar effect on human institutions. 

One does not have to go beyond Gibbon to know what influence 
on history the doctrine of man's immortality has exercised. It 
produced this effect without applying the brotherhood of man in 
connection with the doctrine of immortality, as it had been taught 
by the founder of Christianity. The concept of human brother- 
hood was as much a reaction against the narrow policy of Judaism 
as it was the logical consequence of Greek monism in philosophy. 
Judaism had drawn very sharply the distinction between the 
" stranger " or Gentile and its own race, and the former was almost 
entirely outside the pale of the law and the sanctuary. But when 
the better spirits of that race saw the defects of this narrow con- 
ception of God and man, even in the time of the prophets, they, 
like the Stoics, recognized the wider duties of human relationship, 
though without expressing them in civil institutions. The subjuga- 
tion of Palestine by the Roman legions, however, brought home the 
lesson. In the dissolution of the ancient religion and the political 
institutions of the Jews, the utter desolation of both their sanctuary 
and their law, there came the sense of human brotherhood that 
never had appealed to the national consciousness in the days of its 



PSYCHICS AND POLITICS 



467 



triumphs. The mind was prepared by its afflictions and the loss of 
its national hopes to listen to another gospel that suddenly ap- 
peared on the horizon — a belief that had not been characteristic of 
Judaism, namely, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. It 
arose in opposition to the materialism of the Epicureans that had 
dominated the later periods of Greco-Roman history and that had 
come to infect the sects of Judaism. It established a new point 
of view for the interpretation of the world and of man. With its 
spiritual conception of God, this new doctrine availed to give the 
spiritual conception of things the primary place in determining the 
meaning of the cosmos and human institutions. The ultimate 
reality of matter was denied, and spirit was regarded as the cause 
instead of the effect of matter. The whole of mediaeval philosophy 
and theology was based upon this conception. The whole material 
universe was supposed to have been created by spirit and subordi- 
nated to the interests of man and his salvation. 

Apart from comparison and contrast of the Greek with the 
Judaistic movement, the important point is the place which the 
idea of the immortality of the soul held in the reconstruction of 
political institutions that had crumbled into ruin on account of the 
ravages of materialism. What it kept in the forefront of human 
thought w^as the value of the individual man, the permanent im- 
portance of his personality, showing that it was this and not the 
glories of the state that survived the ravages of time. Ancient 
civilization had no such conception of the relation between the 
state and the individual citizen as we hold. Man existed for the 
institutions, political and religious, that prevailed. He was a serv- 
ant, not a master, of the social order. He paid his tribute and 
gave his life to it without being able to exact any but the most 
meager service from it. The state had all the rights and the citizen 
none, and on critical examination the state turned out to be em- 
bodied in certain favored individuals with irresponsible power to 
rule the citizen as they pleased. But to adopt the immortality of 
the soul as the center of human interest and to conceive the cosmos 
as an order subordinate to man's development and salvation wrought 
a profound change. It brought forward, not only the value of the 
individual, but also a conception of his relation to things which 



468 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

opposed his subordination to political masters and made even nature 
a servant to his ends. In this way the immortality of the soul 
involved human brotherhood; and this latter idea attained a prac- 
tical importance, instead of a purely speculative interest. 

When the attempt to put into practice the brotherhood of man 
by its early communistic system had failed, Christianity concen- 
trated its interest on the realization of its kingdom of God in a 
life beyond the grave; and, with an ascetic view of life and a pessi- 
mistic view of nature, it set about reorganizing ethical and religious 
institutions around the idea of personal salvation. The radical 
character of its theistic conception, which made no concessions to 
materialism, and the enthusiasm for a future life resulted in fifteen 
centuries of uninterrupted triumph for the Christian view of life 
and social relations. The traditions of government, combined with 
other influences, made it impossible or inconvenient to carry out the 
communism implied in the notion of human brotherhood, and the 
mediaeval period had to be content with charity as the embodiment 
of its social feeling; and even this was regarded as a means of 
personal salvation rather than as the expression of altruistic feel- 
ing. But two ideas remained dominant in the minds of men: the 
immortality of the soul and the attainment of that immortality by 
human service. These ideas implied the subordination of the state 
to the welfare of the subject, even though government continued to 
use its power for arbitrary and selfish ends. Alexander the Great 
and Julius Caesar sought to establish universal dominion for the 
sake of the glories of political power and conquest; Christianity in 
the Middle Ages sought the same end, at least nominally and osten- 
sibly, for the salvation of the citizen. The early Christian's 
" Kingdom of God," Augustine's " Civitas Dei," and the " Utopia " 
of Sir Thomas More could not have been conceived on any other 
basis, and they lacked only the will of men in order to become 
effective. 

The placing of man's hopes in another life tempted him to buy 
his salvation with perfunctory works. He also showed a contempt 
for physical nature hardly compatible with his view of the relation 
■of Providence to its creation. The reaction against the debauch- 
eries of Epicurean materialism carried him into an " otherworldli- 



PSYCHICS AND POLITICS 469 

ness " scarcely less objectionable than the previous worldliness. 
The belief that matter is essentially evil in its nature led only to 
the fixing of human vision on an imaginary world that was less 
carnal only because it could not be made the subject of personal 
experience here and now. Such a statement, of course, is qualified 
by the presence, in many minds, of purer conceptions of duty and 
of the hereafter. But even Dante's and Milton's works were 
founded on a more literal interpretation of Christianity than the 
idealistic theories that came after. The very necessity of adapting 
its ideals to the understanding of the multitude for whose salvation 
every individual was responsible was an influence to keep religious 
conceptions upon the plane of the sensory imagination. Protestant- 
ism, with its vindication of individual judgment, put the priest at 
the mercy of those whom he had previously been privileged to di- 
rect, and inevitably the standard of sense-perception again became 
the measure of truth even in the strongholds of the church. With 
the revival of this point of view, the ascetic conception of life was 
sure to meet criticism. The renaissance, on the one hand, with its 
revival of interest in Greek ideals, and the reinstatement of the study 
of nature in astronomy, physics, and chemistry, on the other, 
brought into being the materialistic attitude that has dominated the 
subsequent centuries. 

But, if the priority of spiritual interests resulted only in their 
overthrow by physical science, we shall be asked why we attempt to 
reinstate an idea that has been tried and found wanting. When 
so much progress has been effected by modern science, why en- 
deavor to turn its wheel backward? 

The first answer is that we have only been stating history, not 
adopting an ideal. I have been mainly interested in the efficacy of 
the spiritual ideal to produce a civilization and to sustain it much 
longer than Greece and Rome were able to maintain their institu- 
tions. If duration of success is a measure of value, the Christian 
conception of life has won the approval of time, and it yet remains 
for physical science to accomplish a similar result. 

A second reply is simply to call attention to the consequences of 
the materialism in which we live. One need not question the im- 
portance of the revival of physical science; and this concession is 



470 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

not grudgingly made. The religious mind had forfeited the confi- 
^ dence of most intelligent men by its departure from fact, as well as 
by its alliance with corrupt political institutions, and it had become 
so petrified in external works and ceremonies that the really ethical 
mind could not accept its hypocrisies, even when it conceded the 
value of ritualism to some temperaments. When physical science 
had once proved its ability to explain the universe, or at least to 
show that the order of nature had not been accurately described 
by the theologians, the way was opened for the system which could 
make the world appear reasonable. The confidence in priestcraft 
was impaired and in its place came the enthusiasm for nature and 
for those who could understand its processes and use its agencies in 
the service of human comfort. 

The triumph of physical science has given us what may be called 
the economic age, an age in which the accumulation of wealth is 
greater than at any other period of history. We enjoy advantages 
which antiquity never dreamed of. We have multiplied the forces 
of invention and machinery, which increase production a hundred- 
fold and, in thus increasing the supply of goods, similarly increase 
the demand. The production due to machinery has far outstripped 
the actual needs of even the larger population; but it has been 
matched by a similarly greater consumption. This satisfaction of 
an increased number of desires leads directly to the estimation of 
life by physical instead of intellectual and spiritual statidards. 
Political freedom followed the emancipation of the intellect by 
science and created preconceptions on which the average mind meas- 
ures the claims of any belief, while the reign of comfort compared 
with the struggle for existence in the Middle Ages makes most 
minds inaccessible to spiritual appeals. Ethics has to wait on eco- 
nomics, for when the latter gets the first hearing there is no time 
nor inclination for the former. The theater is preferred to the 
church. We doubt the reality of any life hereafter to make sacri- 
fices for, and we " make hay while the sun shines," that is, we ex- 
pend all our labor in the accumulation of the means for physical 
enjoyment. Travel and amusement offer more pleasure than does 
w^orship, and, as nature is not to be feared but appropriated to the 
making of money, there are no terrors to blast our hopes. If we 



PSYCHICS AND POLITICS 471 

can make our satisfactions of the sensuous sort sufficiently intense, 
we may be so spiritually benumbed as not to fear death any more. 
We face it, not as Stoics, whose maxims pay an involuntary tribute 
to hopes that they do not share, but as Epicureans, who have got 
all they want until their satiated senses no longer feel the love of 
life. We expect the sacrifices we make to be repaid with interest, 
and we place our political power in the hands of the " business " 
man who knows how to play the part of a sophist while he rifles our 
pockets. The standards of success are those of the money maker, 
not those of the moralist. The measure of social standing is 
wealth, not intellect nor conscience. We are unable to accomplish 
anything without money, and common labor is a disgrace. All the 
duties of the world rest on the poor and all the liberties are with 
the rich. 

It is scarcely possible to overestimate the influence of this mate- 
rialism. We all know its power, but ignore its tendencies. Our 
phi/osophy does not protect us against the insidious encroachments 
of this materialism, which is as triumphant in speculation as in prac- 
tice. We think Idealism is no protection against it, for in fact there 
is no difference between them in ^heir practical working, except 
that one prizes intellectual accomplishments and the other financial 
success and sensuous enjoyments; neither acts on the supposition 
that we have a soul that survives death. The first great philosophi- 
cal assault on Christian theology was the doctrine of the inde- 
structibility of matter. Christianity affirmed the secondary and 
created nature of matter in all its forms, both sensible and super- 
sensible. Plato had maintained that the function of Providence 
was only to arrange the cosmic elements in their order. Anaxa- 
goras had held the same view of his Reason or Nous. Aristotle 
had his primum mobile start the universe and then sit back in con- 
templative bliss to watch it go. The Epicureans had taught that 
chance coincidence brought together the eternal elements or atoms 
and that the whole creation was brought about by these chance com- 
binations of imperishable atoms. But Christianity assaulted this 
central position of the indestructibility of matter and took spirit to 
be the permanent reality. But the scientific proof of the inde- 
structibility of matter and later of the conservation of energy tx,- 



<-A 



472 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

posed the error of this position, and the main philosophic fortress 
of Christianity was captured. The inevitable effect was to give 
matter the priority in speculative interest and to subordinate spirit 
to it. Spirit, from being the substance of reality, became its phe- 
nomenon, a transient accompaniment of it in some of its manifold 
organic forms. This view was soon supported by the discoveries 
of physiology, in which consciousness seemed to be the victimized 
creature of brain functions, not the ruler of a material organism. 
All the phenomena which the older view had regarded as proving the 
existence of a soul came to be regarded as mere incidents in the 
casual development of material bodies. Materialism became tri- 
umphant and the human mind, liberated from the speculative and 
political shackles of the mediaeval period, began to enjoy its free- 
dom in gradually breaking away from all the restraints that had 
developed and sustained the social, political, and religious conscience 
for so many centuries. We are still living in the period of rapid 
decline of the ethical impulse, and nothing but the possibility of 
reinstating a spiritual view of nature and life can restrain the 
progress of that retrograde movement. 

The effect upon politics was felt as soon as the spiritual view of 
nature and life had lost the confidence of the public. Materialism 
relaxed the force of conscience while it opened the physical world 
to unlimited exploitation. All our laws are judged by those in 
power according to their relation to " business " or the accumulation 
of wealth, and the politician is as conscienceless as was the tax- 
gatherer in the Roman Empire. He has no ideals of human wel- 
fare, but only the desire to make the citizen pay tribute to his 
avaricious ambitions. If he can manipulate the laws he will save 
himself the trouble of work. The common citizen becomes satu- 
rated with the same ideals, and society is a struggle for wealth in- 
stead of for character. Science is on the side of materialism and 
all intelligence is against the church. But on all the issues that 
concern the correction of materialism the church itself is divided 
and is hopelessly implicated in the same ideals as our political sys- 
tem. In order to hold itself together the church has been obliged 
to resort to everything except the appeal to intelligence and may 
§oon be reduced to mumbling a ritual over the cerements of its 



PSYCHICS AND POLITICS 473 

past. Materialism governs the thought and action of the common 
laborer, who was once under the influence of religion, and of the 
highest oflicers of state, who were once proud to serve the public, 
but now have only a predatory interest in the service which they 
can extort from the helpless citizens. We are following the path 
of Greco-Roman civilization in the days of its decadence, because 
the same economic and social forces are operative now as then, 
under the loss of the ethical ideals and beliefs of the preceding 
religious period. The laboring classes have abandoned their reli- 
gion, and are struggling with the capitalists for a share in the 
profits of production. Their philosophy and ideals are the same as 
those of the capitalist; they too are straining their efforts only to 
secure a larger share of materialistic reward. 

I am not questioning the right to insist on economic justice nor 
even the importance of more nearly equal distribution of the 
world's goods. But the value of this larger share will depend 
wholly upon the use to which it is put when it has been acquired. 
Money is power, and like all power it should receive respect only 
in proportion to its furtherance of ethical ideals. Materialism 
offers no ideals but those of sense to the majority of men ; the few 
who follow the intellectual life make it an otiose escape from 
toil. The ultimate value of this culture and of the inner life is not 
indicated. It is to end in the grave and nothing is to be left to our 
children but the short memory of it. The redemption that we seek 
is from poverty, not from sin. The joys of life are those of the 
table, the holiday, and the theater. 

This is a dark picture, and there are not wanting exceptions to 
whom such a judgment does not apply. I have no doubt that more 
than five can be found to save our modern Sodom and Gomorrah. 
There is always a sufficient leaven to protect the whole from final 
destruction; but it is the part of a discussion like this to point out 
the tendencies that might reduce the saving influences to impotency. 
We need above all to revive the spiritual meaning of existence. I 
do not mean that we shall return to the beliefs of the past, nor that 
we have to subordinate the material universe to spirit in the same 
sense as before. Certain discoveries of physical science with their 
implications must remain a permanent acquisition of knowledge and 



474 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

practice. They have taught us to acknowledge that inflexible order 
of nature which is quite as important to our ethics as any revelation 
of its limitations. A part of man's salvation lies in the humility 
which a fixed order makes necessary; only false pride can come 
from feeling that he has nature always at his command. A limita- 
tion on the will is quite as important as freedom, and a materialism 
which imposes inexorable limits to human arrogance is quite as 
ethical an influence as any view which makes man despise nature. 
But materialism may be as onesided as spiritualism; we need to 
restore the importance of consciousness and duty in the world, and 
this restoration depends on the proof that there is a soul and a future 
life instead of mental phenomena that are mere incidental functions 
of the brain. 

If psychic research promises anything to the world it holds out 
hope of throwing light upon the nature and destiny of the soul, and 
of doing this by the scientific method instead of by pure speculation 
or faith. If belief in immortality carries the same assurance that 
we have of Copernican astronomy, Newtonian gravitation, and 
Darwinian evolution, it will have an efficacy that can never attach to 
a belief not so assured. 

The revival of the importance of spirit in nature will have the 
same power to uphold moral agencies in the world that it had in 
the past. The value that the doctrine gives to human personality 
enables the teacher of mankind to enforce his ideals of morality. 
We have seen what a subordinate place the individual had in the 
politics of antiquity, when the social system took no account of the 
importance of personality and of our duty to save it. No sense of 
responsibility for the salvation of our neighbor was inculcated in 
the ancient religion or politics. Those in power were at liberty 
to exploit the rest of mankind as they pleased. But Christianity 
created a new social standard, based upon the importance of the 
individual soul and our responsibility for its salvation. The ma- 
terialistic reaction has threatened this conception with extinction, as 
is apparent in the new imperialism that has arisen and in the con- 
tempt for other races that has followed. We no longer feel the 
racial sympathy that the missionary felt or the sense of the unity 
of the human race created by the obligation to extend the influence 



Bl 



PSYCHICS AND POLITICS 475 

of Christianity. We have adopted morals that threaten our own 
race with extinction and then despise or fear those races that prom- 
ise to take our place. That our social conduct might injure a soul's 
life after death does not enter into our calculations. But if we can 
prove that the materialistic theory of consciousness is false and 
that man has a more important end than the satisfaction of his 
bodily wants and his merely earthly happiness we shall have estab- 
lished a new fulcrum for the moralist. 

It is not the mere fact that we survive death that will affect the 
conduct of individuals and societies, but its place in the organic 
system of ideas of the body politic. It was not the mere belief 
in immortality that gave Christianity its efficacy, but its doctrine of 
limited probation that enabled it to carry out both its ecclesiastical 
and political policies. But that doctrine of probation would have 
had no meaning at all without belief in a future life. It is clear 
that belief in a future life is the best fortification for all the duties 
which have a relation to an existence beyond the present. If we 
can organize in association with that belief a stronger sense of 
human brotherhood it must ultimately influence our political institu- 
tions as profoundly as did the fifteen centuries of Christian su- 
premacy, though it may take as long to attain that end. But this 
time it has scientific method and authority instead of mere faith and 
opinion to support it. If science can furnish men a creed by which 
they are to live for some end other than the present life, the recon- 
ciliation between science and religion, which has been so long 
sought, may easily be attained. 

I have not appealed to the sentimental value of the belief in any- 
thing that I have said of its importance. I have emphasized only 
the intellectual place which it may hold in supporting or recon- 
structing the foundations of ethics and moral idealism. Its influ- 
ence on the griefs and sufferings of mankind is scarcely less great 
than the influence of medicine, and is capable of being made greater. 
On that feature of its value I shall not dwell. If the theory of evo- 
lution can modify all the maxims which prevented men from model- 
ling their attitude toward their neighbors after the standards of 
nature, we may well imagine what a defence of humanitarianism 
may be based upon the proof of survival after deathj especially if 



476 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

we find, as we may, that the destiny of every man is affected by the 
character of his physical Hfe quite as much as by the habits of his 
soul. It is at least certain that a new measure of human value will 
come into use if we find nature to be as careful of personality as she 
is of the elements. The certainty of the survival of personality 
will put a stop to all those skeptical discussions which postpone the 
acceptance of ethical standards founded on immortality until the 
proof of survival is presented. It will give the idealists a chance to 
reanimate that estimate of life from which spring both poetry and 
religion, and with these that sense of human relationship which may 
do more to reconstruct politics than all other intellectual forces. 



CHAPTER XXXI 
SUMMARY AND REFLECTIONS 

THE facts reported in this volume are but samples from a 
thousandfold larger mass, whose meaning is apparent. 
Whatever skepticism prevails regarding them is due to 
various influences. Sometimes it is mere prejudice, sometimes it 
is ignorance both of the problem and of the facts ; and there is much 
opposition that is based on neither prejudice nor ignorance, but on 
mere intellectual obstinacy and pride. It is easy to oppose any 
belief if you are so disposed. Reasons can always be given, whether 
rational or not, against a theory, if one chooses to give them. Th^ 
*' will to disbelieve " is quite as prevalent as the " will to believe," 
and is no more creditable. Much prejudice and ignorance are 
excusable, when we consider how powerfully environment acts on 
our beliefs. Unanimity of opinion is essential to any social order. 
We keep out of perpetual war only by agreeing on something. Our 
interests are so bound up with the opinion of the community that 
it is not safe for us to take the part of rebels. Hence we accept 
the ideas in which we are born and bred. Childhood trusts, and 
our beliefs are largely made in childhood. The line of least re- 
sistance is to follow the ideas of the community. Prejudice is, 
therefore, more or less unavoidable, at least on matters about which 
we have little or no opportunity to work out systematic beliefs. 
Ignorance is but an accompaniment of these influences and is more 
excusable than prejudice, because the latter has a tendency to in- 
clude influences from the desire and the will. 

Hostility, however, based upon intellectual pride and obstinacy 
has no such excuse. It is irrefutable except by ridicule and the 
resistance of public opinion. It infects all minds sophisticated by 
knowledge and tending to defend preexisting ideas. It causes a 
sort of obsession which has become fixed partly by personal inter- 
ests and partly by the extent to which this knowledge represents 

477 



478 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

accepted scientific truth. Nevertheless, all intelligent people are 
called upon to keep preconceptions in abeyance in the presence of 
new facts. No doubt the discoverer of new truth may exhibit too 
much haste to revolutionize things, but this fault is not any worse 
than an inflexible conservatism in a changing and progressing 
world. Truth is always dependent on facts enough to make it clear 
that it represents some sort of law in the world. Even if facts are 
exceptional, they must be compatible with the unity in nature. 
Frequency of occurrence is the evidence of law and of articulation 
with the cosmic order. This fact explains, and at least half justi- 
fies, the cautiousness of the average man in weighing every claim 
that comes along for the supernormal. But history has shown us 
that caution has its limits. Such an influence might be invoked, 
as it was by the church, against any change of our ideas whatever. 
But no such habit should characterize the scientific mind. The 
very essence of science is the understanding of change as well as of 
the constancies of nature. The scientist has always insisted that 
we relax religious obstinacy and prejudice in the consideration of 
hypotheses that might seem to conflict with preestablished ideas. 
It therefore becomes obligatory upon him to practice his own 
preaching in the consideration of supernormal phenomena. 

The course suggested, however, has not often been taken. From 
no one has psychic research met more opposition than from the 
scientific man. His attitude is explicable, but not always excusable. 
The conquests of physical science are supposed to have eliminated 
the " supernatural " from human belief, and most scientific men 
think that psychic research threatens to restore that beast to powder. 
But there is no danger that past conceptions will again find cur- 
rency, and no serious consequences can happen, from giving the term 
" supernatural " as clear a meaning as that of " nature.'" Those 
who reduce everything to " nature " can hardly give an intelligible 
account of what they mean by the term save as the order of fre- 
quently observed facts. And yet this is made an idol for a worship 
as extravagant as that of a savage for his fetish. 

The emphasis, however, upon regularity is important. The 
systematic and rational behavior of life depends upon the con- 
stancies of the cosmos. If it were as changeable as the super- 



SUMMARY AND REFLECTIONS 479 

naturalist assumes it to be, there would be little opportunity for 
any ethical development and perhaps none for the slow evolution 
of human life and its functions. It is the constancy of " nature " 
that makes possible human character and development. The scien- 
tific skeptic of the '' supernatural " has in his hands the answer to 
the question cui bono, if only he will use it instead of merely making 
the concept of nature serve as the basis of a new dogmatism and 
a new intolerance. But in order to defend regularity, he sacrifices 
all the benefits that come from a spiritual conception of the world's 
order. His opponent insists as strenuously on a conception that 
invokes caprice against law. Why are not both law and caprice 
as reconcilable with nature as with the supernatural ? Why should 
either of them be regarded either as necessary or as antagonistic 
to one or the other of these conceptions? It is certain that both 
exist, whatever view we take of either nature or the supernatural. 
What we want is facts; we can then decide whether they are natural 
or supernatural. 

It is wearisome to insist on the meaning of such facts as I have 
cited in this volume. Their import is clear. They certainly make 
a spiritistic hypothesis acceptable. The illustrations quoted may 
not suffice to demonstrate the existence of a future life, if taken 
alone or regarded as the total evidence in favor of such a theory, 
and I do not quote them with the expectation that they alone will 
settle the issue. They are but examples of phenomena as old as 
history and as extensive and constant as any other phenomenon 
of nature. But they are better accredited than most instances and 
so make it imperative for them to be investigated. 

The only difficulty the spiritistic hypothesis faces is the ignorance 
and prejudice of the public. That ignorance and prejudice may be 
excusable; but they are obstacles, and the only obstacles, to the 
belief in immortality. The objections based upon the triviality of 
the facts, the fragmentary and confused nature of the communica- 
tions, and the absurdity of the revelations are beside the mark. 
They betray total ignorance of the problem and of the process in- 
volved in getting the data. The problem of the proof of personal 
identity is crucial, and nothing but trivial facts will satisfy the con- 
ditions of such proof. The fragmentary nature of the messages 



480 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

and the apparent absurdities of revelations about the other world 
are caused by the process of communicating and by the difficulties 
of representing a different world in terms of our own. Untrained 
readers assume too readily that the conditions of intercourse be- 
tween the two worlds are either like our own or so nearly like them 
as not to affect the contents of the messages. The spiritistic hy- 
pothesis is not itself a revelation, but an explanation. Its develop- 
ment and ramifications await future work. At present it is neces- 
sary as a means of making the main facts intelligible. It main- 
tains only that there is scientific evidence of the survival of personal 
consciousness, and not that we know all about the nature and con- 
ditions of a transcendental world. It establishes the main point, 
and leaves the accessories of the hypothesis to be determined. 

Personally I regard the fact of survival after death as scien- 
tifically proved. I agree that this opinion is not upheld in scien- 
tific quarters. But this is neither our fault nor that of the facts. 
Evolution was not believed until long after it was proved. The 
fault lay with those who were too ignorant or too stubborn to ac- 
cept the facts. History shows that every intelligent man who has 
gone into this investigation, if he gave it adequate examination at 
all, has come out believing in spirits; this circumstance places the 
burden of proof on the shoulders of the skeptic. 

The present war and the manner in which it is making multitudes 
think of the meaning of life and death will do more than a hundred 
years of academic talk to awaken interest in the problem. Thou- 
sands who suffer losses and ask what they mean, would not think 
of the matter so keenly in the ordinary vicissitudes of life. The 
person suffering the pangs of grief or asking for a solution of the 
enigma of existence, and not afraid of his neighbors, will think 
for himself; and, even if he does appear to have an emotional bias, 
he will see facts more clearly than the man who boasts of his exemp- 
tion from the influence of personal interest, but who, in reality, is 
only under the domination of another interest equally strong and 
more dangerous because the man has the illusion that he is free 
from it Those who have to face the realities, both economical 
and moral, will not trust their salvation to sophists or to men who 
do not enter into the real problems of the world. They will go 



SUMMARY AND REFLECTIONS 481 

straight to the solution that fits the facts, and as usual the academic 
sophist will lose his hold on the forces of civilization. Insight has 
more to do with the problem and its solution than much learning. 
The public will go straight to the heart of the matter, and those 
who assume academic authority without scientific knowledge of the 
facts will find themselves shorn of power. Those who should have 
led will have to follow. If they do not see their opportunity, we 
can only repeat the warning of the prophet : Israel is joined to his 
idols, let him alone. 

The circumstance that gives so much power to skepticism is the 
uninterrupted triumph of physical science, based on the easy obser- 
vation and reproduction of its phenomena. It has relied upon 
sense-perception for its data and especially for such data as it can 
easily verify in human experience. The more elusive phenomena 
of nature it either ignores or questions, and thus has established a 
criterion of reality that makes the claims of supersensible facts 
difficult to establish. Very early it excluded spiritual reality from 
the causes of the world, even when it admitted its existence. The 
earlier and later materialists in Greek philosophy were at one on 
this point. They all agreed that the gods existed, but they gave 
them no causal influence in the world. They were assigned to a 
place in the intermundia where they were harmless and inefficient, 
where they were equally unable to cause evil or to do good. Their 
position might be envied by those who suffer from the pains of un- 
remitting toil, but it would offer no delightful prospect to those 
who abhor idleness. They could not assuage grief and pain nor 
exercise any benevolent force in the universe. They could only live 
in an idleness that is as irksome to the ethical man as it is envied 
by the unethical. They are 

The Gods who haunt 
The lucid interspace of world and world, 
Where never creeps a cloud, or moves a wind, 
Nor ever falls the least white star of snow, 
Nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans. 
Nor sound of human sorrow mounts to mar 
Their sacred everlasting calm. 

Beings that only watch things go will never be objects either of 
fear or reverence, nor appear as ideals for moral character. 



^] 



482 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

But whatever we believe about immortality to-day, we cannot 
question the causal influence of consciousness on the stream of 
physical phenomena. If we once grant the existence of spirit, in- 
carnate or discarnate, we must admit it to a place among the causes 
in nature ; indeed we shall hardly discover its existence save through 
its effects. But we do not question its causal power in the series of 
physical and mental phenomena that come to our attention, and we 
do not accept the a priori theories that defined the nature and limits 
of mind in the Epicurean and other forms of materialism. All that 
we do is to insist on evidence; and only the prejudices for a theory 
that relies as much on tradition as do the orthodoxies of religion, 
now stand in the way of a ready belief in the existence of discarnate 
spirit. The evidences of its causal influence in the physical world 
are so plentiful that they are almost self-evident. We have there- 
fore only to prove that it survives death, to prove that its causal 
action extends beyond the grave, as there is no proof of survival 
which does not carry with it the implication of some influence on 
the living as the condition of that proof. 

The phenomena of spiritual healing and of obsession well illus- 
trate the extent of the causal action of discarnate consciousness. 
The symptoms of hysteria, of secondary personality, of some mala- 
dies diagnosed as dementia precox and paranoia, and perhaps others, 
assure us of an immense field for the practical application of psychic 
research, which will be recognized as soon as the world accepts the 
fact of survival. In the recurrence of spiritual healing, primitive 
Christianity will be revived. A new meaning will be put into the 
New Testament and the work of Christ. 

Moreover, the ethical value of the belief in survival can hardly 
be measured. An age that has had to give it up because of mate- 
rialism and the lack of evidence pretends not to be interested in it. 
It assumes the garb of courage and of Stoicism, parading in self- 
righteousness what is but the virtue of necessity. It is hardly to 
be blamed. Our duty always is to make the best of a bad bargain. 
But why insist that life is a bad bargain? "All is well that ends 
well," even if we have spilled the milk. Nature may not be a 
Medusa-head after all. Many of her rougher actions and inflic- 
tions of pain are but the just discipline for our own vices. The 



SUMMARY AND REFLECTIONS 483 

great fog-bank into which materialism sails is more easily pene- 
trated than it surmises. It conceals a beautiful sun-lit sea and the 
happy isles, and psychic research ventures on embarking where the 
philosophy of Immanuel Kant only warned the sailor against rocky 
shoals and disaster. Mythology was sound in its psychology and 
its ethics when, after allowing the escape of all the evils in the 
world, it left Hope at the bottom of Pandora's box. 

No one can act rationally in life without hope. It is essential to 
every desire we have and to every volition we exercise. There is 
no rationality in any act save as we can hope for its fruition as the 
fulfillment of our wishes. If personality has any value in nature, 
we must appraise it as nature does. If consciousness perishes at 
death it is clear that hope has no application beyond the grave. I f 
personality extends beyond the grave, hope has a wider sphere of 
meaning, and so has life. Personality takes the chief place in the 
estimation of values and both our individual and our social ethics 
may be based upon it. The disposition to prolong consciousness 
and to value the higher intellectual and emotional expressions of it 
above the lower is so much testimony to that evaluation. 

It is not necessary to take an optimistic view of the world in 
dealing with the question. The scientific problem is to guarantee 
survival, whether it is desirable or not, whether the next world is 
ideal or unpleasantly real. In saying a word for hope in the scheme 
of things, we may not offer assurance of satisfaction for every 
specific desire we cultivate or indulge. It will be enough to show 
that nature ensures the survival of personal identity; and then, 
whatever curtailment of our selfish expectations may follow, we 
still have the opportunity of correction. Annihilation will allow 
neither progress nor correction of the past. Desire and volition 
have no meaning except with reference to a future; and, with no 
prospect of attainment of our aims, we can have little reverence 
for an order that allows no genuine achievement, and only keeps us 
at the eternal task of Sisyphus. 

I do not forget that the belief in immortality may be abused. It 
is as easy to be too " other-worldly " as to be too worldly. The 
truth is beneficial or harmful according to the character of the man 
who accepts it. Guns and gunpowder are exceedingly useful in 



484 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

the hands of the right man, but a dangerous evil in the wrong hands. 
We prize Hberty, but there is no conception which cannot be abused 
more than this. There is probably not a single truth which human 
nature cannot pervert. A belief in a future life is no exception. 
But the fact that it was abused in the Middle Ages, or that it may 
be too much stressed by some minds, is no reason for ignoring the 
doctrine. Some tell us that nature or Providence does not intend 
for us to know about a future life. But the same type of mind told 
us that we should not inquire into the processes of nature. While 
maintaining that nature is a product of the Divine and while en- 
joying the fruit of scientific conquests over it, they counselled neg- 
lecting its revelations! There is no truth that can be made more 
helpful to man than a belief in survival. It will all depend on his 
balance of mind. Disregarding it leads to emphasis on the mate- 
rialism that has nearly wrecked civilization in the greatest war of 
history. We do not want the belief established in order to con- 
centrate interest again on the hereafter, but to fix a balance in human 
endeavor. If nature values the inner life, what man has called the 
" spiritual " life, the virtues of reflection, gentility, unselfishness 
and all the attitudes of mind and will that take him away from an 
exclusively sensuous life, it is time that we have a philosophy and 
an outlook that helps to sustain the higher ideals of consciousness. 
It is for its reflex influence on the ethics of the present life that it 
is important, not for its power to make us ignore the imperative 
duties of the present. 

We are told that the interest in immortality is a selfish one. It 
is probable that the belief can be used as selfishly as any other, but 
he who lays too much stress on this aspect of it does not know 
human nature. While I see many that have only a personal inter- 
est in it and only desire to gain a further surplus from nature after 
having an undue share of this world's goods, the most important 
feeling, in my experience and observation, is the altruism which 
lies at the basis of the most poignant grief. I find that those who 
suffer most from the doubt of immortality, do not care so much for 
survival for themselves as they do for their departed friends. They 
desire that their loved ones shall '* still hae a stake '' in the clash 
of the world's iorces. With them it is an altruistic, not an egoistic 



SUMMARY AND REFLECTIONS 485 

hope, an unselfish, not a selfish desire. The bitterest pain and per- 
plexity come where the affection is the strongest. In such situ- 
ations it is quite as important to assuage grief as it is to satisfy 
appetites. When a man has lived the properly ethical life it is 
natural for him to feel disturbed at the thought of the interruption 
of life. He must seek in some belief a means of interpreting nature 
consistently with his moral ideals. He must find the clue to her 
purposes that he may be reconciled to the temporary appearance of 
inharmony in the world's ethical order. He wants to see far be- 
yond in the future the trend of events which may sustain his faith 
in an ethical order while it keeps the torch of hope before him. 

'T is not for self we feel the glow 
Of passion for continued life, 
But love for those whose passage mars 
The growth of soul and all its aims. 
For death, in his remorseless path, 
Leaves here no evidence for hope. 
And we must seek its guerdon there 
Where chance may bring a cheering word 
From out the gates of grief and pain. 
But when we bridge the sombre gulf 
Twixt life and death, and learn -that love 
Still waits upon the shining shores 
Of time and fate to meet us there, 
We watch forever and forever 
The distant purposes of God, 

We may say that this is an emotional attitude of mind, and I 
do not question the statement. I only say that emotion has quite 
as legitimate a place in the world as intellect. It is the basis of all 
the ethics we possess, and intelligence is only a secondary acquire- 
ment in the cosmos. Science shows us that the chief function of 
intelligence is to enable us to occupy a better place in the struggle 
for existence; it is usually a thousandfold more egoistic than 
emotions. 

The neglect or hostility which the subject receives is one of the 
curious problems of psychology. If a new engine for an aeroplane 
is announced the inventor is acclaimed a benefactor of the world. 
If some new substance to take the place of gasoline is discovered, 
all the capitalists in the country tumble over each other to get the 



486 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

control of it. A new element in chemistry is announced with all 
the fervor of a miracle. Anything that will fill the human belly 
with the husks that the swine do eat, is considered the greatest 
thing in the world. But if a man offers evidence that he has a soul 
and that he may expect to live after death, he is called insane, 
though he may prove the prolongation of consciousness, which is 
the one aspiration of every effort a man makes in life! No better 
indication of the utter materialism of the age could be adduced. 
But at last the consequences of war, bearing the fruits of material- 
ism in the ugly spectacle of death and grief, are forcing attention 
on the subject. 

The belief in immortality is the keystone to the arch of history, 
or the pivotal point about which move the intellectual, the ethical, 
and the political forces of all time. If science cannot protect our 
ethical ideals it will have to succumb to the same corrosion that has 
worn away the church. Something must put an end to doubt. 
There are many situations in life that call for heroic measures, and 
skepticism on the outcome of life offers no inducement to the heroic 
virtues. 

Poetry has probably done more than philosophy to redeem the 
human race. It sees more than naked facts. These last we must 
see and respect, with all the clearness that will prevent their dis- 
coloration from interest and emotion. But if we suppose that 
knowledge achieves its ends without feeling, we shall miss the 
main opportunities of life. Neither one nor the other is the whole 
object of existence. They supplement each other. Plato's myth 
of the chariot drawn by the two steeds of passion and impulse, 
without the guidance of reason, illustrate the consequences of un- 
adjusted energies. 

Wisdom and passion 
Playing for place, 
Whichever winneth 
Loses its grace. 

When the two, peaceful, 
Mingle and kiss, 
Then cometh sweetly 
Power and bliss. 



SUMMARY AND REFLECTIONS 



487 



The Stoic, on the one hand, and the Epicurean, on the other, 
equally miss the meaning of life. The via media has always been 
the path of sanity and common sense, and neither knowledge nor 
emotion alone will give intellectual and moral health. Their func- 
tions must be adjusted to each other; only on that condition will 
a man be saved the ravages of skepticism and the consequences of 
libertinism. 

The age is in the throes of a search for certitude, and it is not 
limited, in that search, to the problem of immortality. The belief 
in immortality, which had been made important for many centuries, 
was doomed to decay unless assurance could be given the human 
mind regarding it. It had been so closely related to ethics that its 
decay threatened the destruction of all ethical and spiritual en- 
deavor. We take what is certain, if it is only the sensuous life, but 
if we find that nature assigns this a secondary place and means to 
preserve the inner spiritual life for further cultivation the sacrifice 
of the physical and the sensuous is rendered more easy and even 
when it has a place in our spiritual development, it will not have 
the intensity of interest that it possesses when we have the prospect 
of nothing else. 

It is easy for the man who has the comforts of life and who has 
stored up much goods, who has been successful in the struggle of 
existence, to congratulate himself on this security and to neglect 
Lazarus lying at his gates. He may thank God that he is not as 
other men are. But he should not blame the unsuccessful for tak- 
ing a less optimistic view of nature. If the world has any claims 
to be regarded as good to its creatures, we should find the evidence 
of it in its outcome. We may endure temporary inequalities and 
suffering, if all ends well. But when the misfortunes of life are 
not equally distributed, we must not wonder that the victims of pain 
and disappointment are rebels. We may become reconciled to pain, 
if it results in a healing discipline, but if the chance for redemption 
and amelioration be forever cut off, the ugly spectre of death will 
give the final touch of despair to human ideals and hopes. We need 
to be in a position to see beyond the horizon, if the conflicts of the 
present life are to be met with patience and endurance. The wider 
outlook will soothe many a pain or give it a spiritual significance. 



488 CONTACT WITH THE OTHER WORLD 

The sadder moments of a wearied hope 
Find on their fringe a dream of better days, 
And while their aura holds the leash of pain, 
That keenly throbs about one's passing joys. 
The bitter sweet will fuse its mingled shades 
Into the calm majestic life of God. 

Were we mere animals without ideals or hopes, we might be In- 
different to the course of nature. We might Hve in the present 
moment without doing any violence to the moral laws. But if 
ideals encourage in us a Hfe above the sensual we need assurance 
that nature will compensate us for the present loss ; and if we find 
that survival is a part of her scheme, the bitterness that would haunt 
us if we were without hope will be less poignant. I do not empha- 
size the joys of such a hope or of its fruition. But we need an 
interpretation of the world which will do something to mitigate 
suffering, if we cannot escape it, or to excuse it, if we find it a 
means to an end. The sadness of sunset is only sublime pathos 
when we are assured of another dawn. 



INDEX 



Aeschylus, 15 

Alcott, Louisa M,, 133 

Alden, Henry, 196 

American Society, 34, 55, 39-40 

Ammonius Saccas, 19 

Anaxagoras, 16 

Ancestor worship, 13 

Ancients, Psychic phenomena among 

the, 20 
Animism, 3, 14, 16, 18, 382 
Apocatastisis, The, 20, 30 
Apollonius of Tyana, 19 
Apparitions, 74-97, loi, 125, 127, 150, 

342, 357 
Apuleius, 20 

Aristotle, 16, 17, 18, 459 
Astor, John Jacob, 265 
Astral body, 357 
Automatic writing, 102 
Automatism, 402 

Bagehot, Walter, 454 

Balfour, Arthur James, 34 

Bangs Sisters, 290 

Baron von Reichenbach, 26 

Barrett, Sir William F., 33, 39, 93 

Beecher, Henry Ward, 296-299, 303- 

304 
Bernheim, 435 
Birchall, Mr., 91 
Bishop, 72 
Blackburn, Mr. 35 
Blaine, James G., 127, 149 
Bourne, Ansel, 62, 414 
Brent Roberts, 272 
Brewin, Charles, 62, 414 
Bridgman, Laura, 131 
Brougham, Lord, 32, 125 
Buddhism, 13, 14 
Burton, Miss, 267, 350 
Bushnell, Horace, 131 



Cabbage Head, 269 
Cabral, Ulysses, 156 
Cahagnet, 26 



489 



Carnegie, Mr., 287, 483 
Carpenter, Dr., 411 
Carpenter, J. Estlin, 127 
Causal influence of consciousness, 482 
Chance coincidence, 59, 66 
Charcot, 485 

Chenoweth, Mrs., 39, 78, 99, 100, 113, 
118, 119, 120, 180, 183, 188, 193, 197, 
199, 200, 212, 217, 219, 220, 224, 
229, 233 seq., 283 seq., 340 seq., 
389, 394 s.eq. 
Christianity and psychic phenomena, 

15 
Christian Science, 255 
Clairaudience, 106 
Clairvoyance, 106 
Clark College, 324 
Clark, Harrison, Jr., 148 
Communicating process, 104-121 

Subconscious action, 104; table tip- 
ping, planchette, ouija, 105; raps, 
106; clairvoyance and clairaudi- 
ence, 106; popular illusions, 107; 
mimicry, 108; normal methods, 
109, motor and sensory types, 109; 
visions, log-iio; phantasms or 
veridical hallucinations, no; picto- 
graphic process, 111-121 
Communication, Difficulties of, 331 

seq. 
Confucianism, 13 
Confusion and mistakes, 331 
Conington, Professor, 126 
Consciousness, 399; causal influence 

of, 482 
Coppinger, Mrs., 128 
Criterion of truth, 44-46 
Crookes, Sir William, 32, 338 
Cross reference and cross correspond- 
ence, 166, 387, 389 
" Crossing the Bar," 173-177 
Cumberland, y2 

Davis, Andrew Jackson, 19, 29, 30, 374, 

420 



i 



-f\ 



49° 



INDEX 



Jon&on 



De Camp, Miss, 196-199 
Deleuze, 26 

Democritus, 16, 48, 382 
Depew, Chauncey, 135 
Dexter, Dr., 369, 372 
Dis Debar, Miss, 285 
Dissociation, 402 
Dowsing, 39 
Duysters, George F., 198 

Earthbound spirits, 375 

Eddy, Mrs. 388, 43S 

Elliotson, 27 

Epicurus, 447 

Esdaille, 2.^ 

Ethical value of belief in immortality, 

482, 484 
Evidence, Problem of, 54-71 
Evidence of survival, 336-337 
Experiences of Well Known Persons, 

125, 139 
Lord Brougham, 125, Andrew Lang, 
126; James Cotter Morison, 126; 
G. J. Romanes, 127; Stevenson, 
Carpenter, Johnon, 127; James G. 
Blaine, 127-128; Carl Schurz, 128; 
Laura Bridgman, 131 ; Horace 
Bushnell, 131 ; Louisa M. Alcott, 
133; Mark Twain, 133; Frank R. 
Stockton, 134; James Otis, 135; 
Chauncey Depew, 135 ; Ernest 
Thompson Seton, 136; Dwight L. 
Moody, 137 ; Sir Henry Stanley, 
137 ; John C. Fremont, 138 ; Henry 
Wikoff, 139; Dean Hole, 139 

Experimental evidence, 165-202 

Explanation, 418 

Fetishism, 3, 14, 16 

Fischer, Doris, 26, 391-397, 414 

Fox Sisters, 27, 28, 420 

Fraud, 57-58, 66 

Frazer, 12 

Fremont, Gen. John C, 138 

Frith, Mr., 179 

Fullerton, Professor George S., 34 

Funk, Dr., 94, 183, 282-309 

G. P. (George Pelham), 112, 114, 115, 

181, 200, 233, 239 
Gardiner, Professor H. Norman, 89 
Geley, Dr., 99 
Gifford, Robert Swain, 203-230, 390 



Godfrey, Rev. Clarence, 93 

Greek message, 173-176 

Gurney, Edmund, 33, 39, no, in, 116 

Guthrie, Malcolm, 91 

Hall, Pres. G. Stanley, 34 

Hallucinations, no 

Haly, Mrs., 153 

Hamilton, Dail, 127 

Hamilton, Sir. William, 411 

Hanna, Mark, 254-255 

Hare, Dr., 338-341, 367-373 

Harpers, 268 

Hauffe, Frederica, 26 

Hays, Mrs., 249-281 

Hegel, 24 

Herodotus, 15 

Heysinger, Dr., 158 

Hoar, Senator George F., 324 

Hodges, N. D. C, 34 

Hodgson, Richard, 34, 39, 112, 114, 
120, 143, 145, 162, 166, 170, 172, 
181, 183, 184, 200, 2ZZ seq., 284, 

295 
Hole, Dean, 139 

Hollands, Mrs., 39, 168, 170, 179, 389 
Home, D. D., 342, 345 
Homer, 15, 176 
Hope, 483 

" Hope, Star, and Browning,'* 170-173 
Howell, Mrs., 162 
Howells, Mr. 268, 274 
Hull, Moses, 422 
Hutchings, Mrs. Emily Grant, 249-281 

Identity, Personal, 65 
Illusions of memory, 378 
Imperator, 186, 22,7, 304 
Ingersoll, Robert, 264 
Isodorus, 20 

Isolation of personality, 53, 70 
Irving, Washington, 263, 264 

Jamblichus, 19 

James, Henry, Jr., 238, 243 

James, Professor William, 39, loi, 113, 

114, 187, 191, 231-248, 310, 350, 

380 
Janet, 435 

Jap Herron, 268-270, 272, 280 
Jennie P— , 188 
Johnson, Miss Alice, 177 
Jonson, Ben, 127 



Judaism 



INDEX 



491 



Judaism, 14 
Judgment, 45 
Jung Stilling, 25 

Kant, Immanuel, 24, 421, 483 
Karma, 378, 380 
Keiser, 26 
Kerner, 26 
Kluge, 26 

Lang, Andrew, 2^, 32, 126 

Laughing Water, 395 seq. 

Lecky, Mr., 449 

Levitation, 345-347 

Lewis, Rev. Garrard, 153 

Life after Death, 352-365 

Sense perception, 352; Christian 
conception, 353; supersensible in 
the physical, 354; change in con- 
ception of matter, 355 ; modern 
materialism, 356 ; " spiritual body 
doctrine, 357; mental nature of 
next life, 360; the subconscious, 

361 
Limitations of the subconscious, 60 
Lodge, Sir Oliver, 169 
Lotze, 428 
Lucretius, 447 

Margaret, 392 seq. 

Margaret, Sleeping, 392 seq. 

Mark Twain, 249-281 

Relation to Mrs. Hutchings, 249; 
appearance at Mrs. Chenoweth's, 
253; name, 254; personal identity, 
257; Washington Irving and 
others, 263 ; Charles Dickens, 265 ; 
Sesame as cross reference, 267 ; 
Jap Herron, 268 ; " cabbage head " 
incident, 269; Mrs. Salter, 272; 
problem, 274; relation to second- 
ary personality, 277; subconscious, 
279 

Marsh, Luther R., 285 

Massey, Charles C, 33 

Materialization, 342-343 

Materialism, 16, 47-53 

Matter, 354 

Meader, John R., 196 

McCreery sisters, 35-36 

McKinley, President, 255 

Mediumistic phenomena, 39 

Mediumship, 401-410 



Definition of, 401; nature of, 402- 
405; conditions, 405-406; method 
of dealing with, 407-410 

Mental nature of life after death, 
360-363 

Mental picture process, ni-119 

Mesmer, 25, 26 

Messages, Validity of, 367 

Miles, Miss, 98, 99 

Minnehaha, 395 seq. 

Moody, Dwight L., 137 

Morison, James Cotter, 126 

Morley, Lord, 441 

Moses, Stainton, 2^, '^77, 186, 237 

Muensterberg, Professor, 350 

Murray, Professor Gilbert, 97 

Myers, Frederic W. H., 33, 97, 99, in, 
116, 155, 156, 157, 159, 166, 170, 
171, 173, 174, 177, 180, 415 

Natural and supernatural, 478 
Newcomb, Professor Simon, 34 
Newnham, Rev. P. H., 86 
Neo-Platonism, 18, 19 
Noel, Roden, Z3 

Obsession, 385-400 

Relation to Christianity, 385; natur« 
of, 386; cause of, 387; cross refer- 
ence, 389; Thompson-Gifford case, 
390-391 ; Doris Fischer case, 391- 
397; origin of, 398 

Omega, 187, 231, 2ZZ, 241, 242 

Oracles, 22 

Otis, James, 135 

Palladino, 350-35I 
Patience Worth, 249, 262, 263 
Pelham, George, 181, 264, 266 
Personality, 9-1 1, 67-71; knowledge 

of, 69 
Phantasms, 94-97 
Phantasms of the Dead, 150 
Philosophy and personality, 68 
Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism, 

335-351 
Levitation, raps, light, etc., ZZ'^; real 
importance of, 337-3Z^ ; Robert 
Hare, 338-341 ; Crookes, Sir Wil- 
liam, 342-345 ; Crawford, Dr. W. 
J., 345-348; raps, 348-349; Miss 
Burton, 349-350; Professor James, 
350; Palladino. 350 
Pickering, Professor Edward, 34 



492 



INDEX 



Spiritual body 



Pictographic process, 111-121 
Dr. Hodgson and G. P., 112; Pro- 
fessor James, 113; dream theory, 
115; "fugitive phantasms," 116; 
visual and audible, 118; direct and 
indirect methods, 119 

Piddington, Mr., 168, 170, 171, 172, 175, 
■ 176, 178, 179, 180 

Pink pajamas, 246 

Piper, Mrs., 39, 112, 114, ii7, 120, 142, 
143, 144, 166, 170, 173, 174, 175, 
179, 183, 185, 343, 389 

Planchette, 105 

Plato, 16, 17, ZT7, 380, 429, 444, 457 

Plotinus, 18, 19, 174, 176, 177 

Plutarch, 19, 21, 22 

Podmore, Mr., ZZ, 99, 339-341 

Politics, etc. See " Psychics and Poli- 
tics " 

Porphyry, 19 

Posthumous letter, 177 

Prejudice, 478, 479 

Prince, Dr. Morton, 391, 395 

Prince, Dr. Walter F., 169, 170, 393, 
394, 396 

Psychic research, origin of, 3-1 1; 
field of, 5, Zl 

Psychic Research and the War, 443- 

453 
Nature of problem, 443; death and 
soldiers, 445 ; value of life, 446 ; 
ancient ideas, 447; materialism, 
448; Stoicism, 449; sacrifice, 450; 
salvation, 451 ; visions of Mons, 
etc., 453 

Psychics and Politics, 454-476 

Physics and psychology, 454; Be- 
lief in immortality, 456; Coperni- 
can astronomy, 460; The Church, 
461 ; scientific progress, 462 ; The 
Reformation, 464; decline of the 
church, 465; Christianity, 466-468; 
criterion of truth, 469; physical 
science, 470; materialism, 471 ; per- 
sonality and its value, 474 

Psychological Institute, 35 

Psychology, Religion and Medicine, 
428-442 
Changes of ideas, 428; matter and 
materialism, 430; medicine, 431; 
religion, 433; Christian Science, 
435; mind and matter, 436; ethics 
and therapeutics, 438 



Quentin, Mrs. 39, 181-183 



Ramsden, Miss, 98, 99 

Raps, 106, 199-202, 344, 348-349 

Rathbun, Mrs., 208, 209, 214, 217, 219, 

223, 229 
Rector, 166 

Reincarnation, 377-384 
Christianity and, m \ illusions of 

memory, 378; loss of identity, 

379; non-ethical, 379; Professor 

James, 380; Spiritualism, 382; 

origin of, 382 
Religion, etc., See "Psychology," etc. 

Also " Spiritualism," etc. 
Resurrection, 15, 18, 382 
Revelations, 366-376 
Source and validity, 366; Dr. Hare, 

367; Judge Edmunds, 369-373; 

relation to psychology of art, Z7Z'> 

contradictions, 375 
Rip Van Winkle, 265 
Romanes, G. J., 127 



Saccas, Alyonius, 19 

Salter, Mrs,, 272 

Savages, Belief among, 12, 46 

Schopenhauer, 24, 411 

Schrenck-Notzing, Baron von, 435 

Schurz, Carl, 128 

Science, 49-53 

Scientific mind, 44 

Secondary personality, 62-63, 66, 277 

Seer of Prevorst, 26 

Self-consciousness, 360 

Sense perception, 352, 360, 481 

Shaler, Professor, 240 

Sidgwick, Mrs., 151, 152, 176, 219 

Sidgwick, Professor, ^2, ZZ, 178 

Skepticism, 477, 481 

Smead, Mrs., 39, 99, 185, 231 seq., 389 

Societies for Psychical Research, 32- 

40 
Socrates, 16, 17, 176 
Solomon, Dr. Myer, 399 
Sophocles,^ 15 
Spencer, Herbert, 12 
Spirit, Conception of, 8, z^y, 328, 329, 

330 
Spiritistic hypothesis, 325, 329, 330 
Spiritual body, 48, 357 



Spiritual world 



INDEX 



493 



Spiritual world, 353-365. Z^7-Z7^ 

Spiritualism, 23-31, 328, 382 

Spiritualism, Belief in, 6-8 

Spiritualism, Religion and Science, 

420-427 

Fox sisters, 420; Christianity, 421; 

modern tendencies, 422; science, 

424; spiritism and spiritualism, 426 

Standard of knowledge, 44 

Stanley, Sir Henry, 137 

Stewart, Professor Balfour, 2,?!> 

Stilling, Jung, 25 

Stimulus, instigation and transmissive, 

417 
Stoicism, 8, 18, 459 
St. Paul, 15, 18, 48, 447 
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 127 
Subconscious, The, 58-62; 66, 107, 

275-276, 278, 361, 402, 411-419 
Synonyms, 411; relation to normal, 

412; secondary personality, 412; 

dissociation, 413 ; relation to spirit 

theory, 414; Myers's conception, 

415; function and content, 416; 

stimulus, 417; field of explanation, 

418 
Subliminal, 411-413 
Supernatural and natural, 478 
Supernormal knowledge, 56 
Survival proved, 329, 480 
Sutton, Catherine Paine, 343 
Swedenborg, 23-25 
Symonds, John Addington, 32 

Table tipping, 105 

Tausch incidents, 186-196 

Telekinesis, 65, 337, 345 

Telepathy, 36-38, 63, 72-103, 163, 230, 
27^, 277, 330, 389 

Thompson-Gifford case, 203-230, 386, 
390 

Transmigration, 17. See also Reincar- 
nation 



Triviality of facts, 64-^S 
Twain, Mark, 133 
Tylor, 12 

Unconscious muscular action, 348 
Unsophisticated mind, 43 

Vergil, 457 

Verrall, Miss Helen, 166, 168, 172, 179 

Verrall, Mrs., 39, 100, 166, 167, 170, 

172, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 232, 

24s, 389 
Vision and hallucination, 59 
Visions of the Dying, 140-164 
Volatile telum incident, 166-167 

Well-Known Persons, Experiences of, 
125, 139 
Lord Brougham, 125 ; Andrew Lang, 
126; James Cotter Morison, 126; 
G. J. Romanes, 127; Stevenson, 
Carpenter, Jonson, 127 ; James G. 
Blaine, 127-128; Carl Schurz, 128; 
Laura Bridgman, 131 ; Horace 
Bushncll, 131; Louisa M. Alcott, 
133; Mark Twain, 133; Frank R. 
Stockton, 134; James Otis, 135; 
Chauncey Depew, 135 ; Ernest 
Thompson Seton, 136; Dwight L. 
Moody, 137; Sir Ilenry Stanley, 
137; John C. Fremont, 138; Henry 
Wikoff, 139; Dean Hole, 139 

Weymouth, Rev. A. B., 159 

Widow's Mite, 296-298, 303, 307 

Wienholdt, 26 

Wikoff, Plenry, 139 

Windridge, Mrs., 152 

Wright, Carroll D., 310-325 

World dominion, 468 

Xenophanes, 14, 459 
Zoellner, 424 








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